South Sudan has seen no progress on corruption or political stability, a United Nations commission warned on Thursday after touring the country ahead of its first-ever elections.
The government said it intends to hold the polls in December, 15 years after it achieved independence.
But the impoverished nation has seen increasing violence between forces allied to long-time rivals President Salva Kiir and imprisoned opposition leader Riek Machar as a power-sharing deal has collapsed.
The UN-appointed Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said serious rights violations continued — including killings, displacement, sexual violence and arbitrary detention — and urged independent investigations.
“Political and civic space has narrowed, while many of the safeguards and conditions for peaceful and credible polls are still missing,” it added.
It highlighted a “lack of progress” since a major report last year on corruption.
The report accused government elites of stealing billions of dollars in oil revenues while doing virtually nothing to build schools, hospitals or other institutions.
“When violations go unpunished and public resources are diverted without consequence, impunity becomes entrenched, and that breeds violence,” commissioner Carlos Castresana Fernandez warned Thursday.
Yasmin Sooka, chair of the commission, added: “The patterns have changed little, while the human cost continues to grow.”
South Sudan has twice delayed the elections, in 2022 and 2024, as the government failed to build capacity.