The South Sudan Election Commission announced today (Saturday) the postponement of the first elections in the history of the youngest country in the world, to February.
The election was scheduled for December 22, after it was postponed twice in the country witnessing widespread political and ethnic conflict. The Commission published the new timetable on social media, setting February 11 as the new date for the electoral process.
Voter registration was scheduled to begin Saturday in the country, which declared its independence in 2011 after secession from Sudan.
A civil war broke out in South Sudan in 2013 against the backdrop of a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his deputy, Riek Machar, which claimed the lives of about 400,000 people and led to the displacement of 4 million.
The 2018 peace agreement stipulated the sharing of power between Kiir and Machar, with the former remaining president and the latter his deputy, during a transitional period that was supposed to end in 2022, with elections that were postponed several times.
Machar was arrested in March 2025 and placed under house arrest, and battles resumed between the army loyal to Kiir and the militias loyal to the deposed vice president.
In late October, a United Nations committee warned that holding the first elections in South Sudan this year could inflame the conflict that has intensified in recent months and increase the risk of atrocities being committed.
The authorities face great difficulties at the election level. Most notably, 90 percent of the population does not hold officially recognized identity documents, according to a World Bank report.
At least 37 civilians were killed on Thursday in an ambush by unidentified gunmen near Tira in western Niger, along the borders with Burkina Faso and Mali, according to what local sources reported to Agence France-Presse.
A former elected official said that the attack targeted residents of the village of Telem as they were heading to the weekly market in Tira, a city and province of the same name in the Tillaberi region (west), noting that they were traveling accompanied by members of the local self-defense forces when they “fell into an ambush set up by unknown gunmen.”
He continued, "37 people were killed immediately, and on Friday morning, another person died of his wounds, bringing the total death toll to 38."
Over the past decade, the country has witnessed bloody attacks launched by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS. The military junta that took power in July 2023 failed to contain the violence.
Among the dead were “11 members of the self-defense group, 7 women, and 20 men,” according to the same source.
For his part, a resident of the city of Tira reported that the attack left “37 dead, including women and children,” noting that “a large number of wounded were transferred to the hospital in Tira.”
The Tillaberi region, located on the border with Mali and Burkina Faso, often witnesses bloody terrorist attacks.
In 2025, the area became “the deadliest in the Sahel,” while civilians were “the most vulnerable to being targeted,” according to the Armed Conflict Data Project (ACLED).
The World Health Organization has monitored an alarming spread of the deadly Ebola virus in rural areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Chikwe Ihekweazu, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator in Geneva, said that the number of infections declined in the areas where the first cases appeared, six months after the outbreak began. He pointed out that some treatment centers in the city of Bunia no longer occupy only half of their beds. But he explained that the number of infections is rising in remote areas that are difficult to reach. “The progress achieved is fragile and insufficient,” Ihekweazu said.
He added that access to these areas was already difficult, even before the outbreak of clashes between various militias, which caused the security conditions to deteriorate. He pointed out the difficulty of establishing new treatment centers in those areas, according to the German News Agency.
He explained that the World Health Organization is trying to enhance its ability to move more flexibly and quickly, so that it can help the population in a shorter time.
Julien Harneh, Ebola coordinator at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Bunia, said that the biggest challenge is the fragile security situation.
He added during his speech in Geneva: “During the past few days, a greater number of deaths have occurred as a result of violence committed by the (Allied Democratic Forces) than the number of deaths due to (Ebola).”
Harneh called for dealing more seriously with the threat posed by the Allied Democratic Forces, and for taking firm measures against them.
66 civilians, including three health workers, were killed last week in an attack launched by this group. Three health facilities were also looted and burned, according to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The latest data from the Ministry of Health, on Wednesday, stated that 11,042 people were infected with the deadly virus, which has so far claimed the lives of 5,387 people.
