Three months before an unprecedented vote, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has dissolved the unity government born of the 2018 peace agreement, while promising the continuity of the state until the December 22 ballot. The text, a republican order dated September 22, was read on state television and widely reported the following day. It replaces the transitional executive with a caretaker administration of which Kiir remains the sole head, until the next elected president takes office.
The decree sweeps away most of the political apparatus. All four vice presidents lose their posts, including Riek Machar, who has been under house arrest since March 2025, was formally suspended in September 2025 and is on trial for treason and crimes against humanity, charges he denies. Ministers and deputy ministers are relieved of their duties, the Transitional National Legislative Assembly and the Council of States are dissolved, as are all ten state governments and their assemblies. Thirteen caretaker ministers take over the key portfolios, and ten interim governors are appointed. Africano Monde Gedima handles Presidential Affairs, Martin Elia Lomuro Cabinet Affairs and Cecilia Adut Manyok Foreign Affairs.
The new officials will work under constraints. They may not enter long-term international agreements, take on substantial debt or dispose of public assets without the head of state’s approval, and they must stay politically neutral. That last clause carries extra weight because oil provides more than 90 percent of state revenue: the ministry now goes to Awow Daniel Chuang, who replaces Puot Kang Chol, an opposition figure arrested in March 2025, and major concessions or asset sales require the president’s signature.
On paper, the move closes a chapter opened by the agreement that ended a five-year civil war which killed around 400,000 people. Yet several parts of that deal were never completed: drafting a permanent constitution, registering voters, unifying the rival armies. The authorities chose to amend the legal framework so that the vote can go ahead without a definitive constitution or a census, two prerequisites long demanded. Parliament, for its part, is to shrink from 650 to 270 members.
Reactions range from caution to alarm. Amnesty International sees a decisive step toward the ballot box, while demanding an environment conducive to voting. Analysts stress instead that Kiir now holds powers with no institutional counterweight, and European Union Ambassador Pelle Enarsson has warned against abuses when checks and balances weaken. A United Nations commission cautions that the process risks rekindling the conflict. The main opposition movement, the SPLM-IO, rejects the amendments and, according to Afrik.com, has threatened to arrest voter registration agents in the areas it controls.
On the ground, Juba has taken precautions: checkpoints and road closures around the government complex, and security forces on heightened alert for three days. The open question is whether a vote organized without consensus on the rules, without its main opponent free, and with an executive answering to a single man can be accepted by all. The answer will come within the next twelve weeks.