Speaking before the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, April 30, U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz said Washington voted in favour of renewing the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan but warned that continued support would depend on major changes from Juba.
“The United States remains deeply concerned that President Kiir’s actions are driving South Sudan backwards while exploiting international support and obstructing those that are genuinely trying to help,” Waltz told the Council.
His remarks marked one of the strongest public rebukes of the Kiir administration by a senior U.S. official in recent months, amid growing frustration in Washington over stalled reforms, repeated delays in implementing the 2018 peace agreement, and restrictions placed on UN and humanitarian operations, especially in northern Jonglei.
Waltz said ordinary South Sudanese citizens were paying the cost of political failures.
“It is the people of South Sudan,” he said. “It is a mother walking with her children after being ordered to leave her home. It is the aid worker who is stopped and threatened at a checkpoint. It is the girl who should be in school but is instead running from armed men.”
He added that many families were still waiting for security years after independence and multiple peace deals.
The U.S. envoy also accused the government of systematically obstructing UNMISS activities, saying between October last year and March this year, the mission documented more than 480 violations of the Status of Forces Agreement.
“That means 480 times peacekeepers were blocked, humanitarian access was denied, repatriation flights were obstructed, bases were forced to close, and millions of dollars were lost and wasted,” he said.
Waltz argued that the real issue in South Sudan was not the wording of UN mandates, but “a host government that actively undermines its commitments to peace and the mission it agreed to accept.”
He further criticised what he described as years of ineffective renewals of the UNMISS mandate without meaningful changes, noting that similar warnings about tensions between the government and the mission had already appeared in UNMISS publications in 2014.
“Year after year after year, we just roll the mandate over and over and over again,” he said.
On elections, Waltz cast doubt on the government’s readiness to organise a credible vote, saying preparations remained “minimal to non-existent,” while key decisions had been delayed and funding was still missing.
He said free and fair elections would require implementation of the outstanding provisions of the 2018 peace agreement and a return to dialogue among signatory parties.
“Genuine dialogue cannot happen while key leaders are imprisoned — including the head of the second-largest party to the agreement, who remains under arrest and on trial,” Waltz said, in an apparent reference to Riek Machar or senior opposition figures aligned with him.
The U.S. diplomat also warned that American financial support for elections could be withheld unless South Sudanese leaders commit their own resources.
“Future U.S. support for elections, including through the United Nations, will depend on whether South Sudan’s leaders put their own public resources behind elections, public services, and government salaries,” he said.
Waltz concluded with a warning to Juba’s leadership and the Security Council itself.
“The people of South Sudan have waited long enough,” he said. “And this Council’s patience is not infinite.”
