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Dev-News News Desk| East Africa. Urge- DevWire

Arms Smuggling Flagged as Key Risk to South Sudan's December 2026 Elections

Juba, South Sudan | 24 July 2026 (Institute for Security Studies analysis)

A 24 July analysis from the Institute for Security Studies warned that illicit arms flows, compounded by spillover from the Sudanese civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces, pose a serious threat to South Sudan's scheduled December 2026 general elections.

Despite a UN Security Council arms embargo in place since 2018, illicit weapons inflows persist. The UN Mission in South Sudan documented 206 incidents of conflict related violence between January and March 2026 alone, affecting 1,388 civilians, with 767 deaths, 457 injuries, 93 abductions and 71 cases of conflict related sexual violence recorded.

Civil society actors in Juba cited by the report said elections may only be feasible in a limited number of urban centres given rebel and armed group control of much of the countryside, where roughly 80 percent of the country's 9.6 million people live. The analysis said credible, nationwide polling would require regional coordination to curb cross border arms trafficking, positioning the issue as a direct governance and stability concern for the wider East African and Horn of Africa region.

Source: Institute for Security Studies.

Dev-News Desk| East Africa. Urge- DevWire