South Sudan's president dissolves government ahead of country's first elections

ByNichola Mandil, Reporting fromJuba, Akisa Wandera, BBC Africa and Allan Olingo.

Key points

• The body which oversees implementation of the 2018 peace agreement, the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), remarked South Sudan had entered a "critical phase".
• Akok had remarked in August that the commission needed $250m (£190m) to conduct the election but had received only $21m.
• South Sudan President Salva Kiir has dissolved the transitional administration, three months before the country's first election since its independence in 2011.
• The latest 24-month extension was due to end on 22 February 2027.
• In June, the main opposition group, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), the party of Machar, cautioned residents not to take part in poll preparations.

Notably, the country has previously postponed elections twice and extended the transitional period a number of times.

As well as national and state governments, under the amended law, signed on Monday, Kiir removed the country's five vice-presidents and dissolved parliament.

Kiir is the presidential candidate of his Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). No prominent figures have confirmed aims to challenge him in the December poll. The main opposition leader Riek Machar was sacked as vice-president last year and charged with treason. He is under house arrest.

Machar had been named vice-president as part of a 2018 peace accord to end a five-year civil war between forces loyal to the two men.

Kiir will remain in office with full constitutional powers until an elected president is sworn in. He additionally reappointed some ministers and governors in caretaker positions until the 22 December elections.

Ahead of Tuesday's announcement a heavy security presence was documented in the capital, Juba. Soldiers from the army and national security services blocked access to administration ministries. Soldiers were additionally seen patrolling parts of the city.

Notably, a senior administration official informed the BBC that staff arriving for work were turned away and informed to return the after Monday.

UN agencies in Juba additionally asked staff to work remotely while the situation was monitored. South Sudan's leader sacks aides after dead man appointed.

Kiir last week dismissed the chairman of the national elections commission, Abednego Akok Kacuol, without giving a reason. He was replaced by the commission's secretary-general, Gabriel Bol Deng.

"Anyone coming to register voters and campaign in territories controlled by the mighty SPLM-IO, you will be a prisoner of war, " Nathaniel Pierino, acting chairperson of the group, remarked in a post on Facebook.

Notably, the body which oversees implementation of the 2018 peace agreement, the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), remarked South Sudan had entered a "critical phase".

It remarked a number of key discussions under the agreement remained incomplete and called on the parties to agree on a path towards credible elections and a peaceful end to the transitional period. It has lasted since independence.

In practice, the latest 24-month extension was due to end on 22 February 2027. More BBC stories on South Sudan. South Sudan sets December date for long-delayed first-ever election. Salva Kiir: The president in a cowboy hat.

Go to BBCAfrica.com, external for more news from the African continent.

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