![South Sudan President Salva Kiir speaks to the press at the State House in Juba, during South Sudan's independence anniversary, on July 9,2019. [Photo via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/gettyimages-1154697213-2048x2048-1.jpg?resize=1431%2C725&quality=89&ssl=1)
“The government does not have a budget for it and the resources are being focused on much-pressing issues such as implementing the peace agreement,” a senior official in the ministry of finance told Sudans Post earlier today.
South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) spokesman Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang told Sudans Post this afternoon that the army has not yet been notified by the political leadership of any official celebrations for the independence anniversary.
“Army leadership not yet notified on whether or not there will be official celebrations to mark 12th anniversary of independence day,” he said.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011 following a referendum – six months earlier – provided for in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended Africa’s longest-running civil war.
However, violence continued to take place in most parts of the world’s youngest country, and it has not officially celebrated its independence anniversary since 2015, following the outbreak of a years-long conflict in December 2013.
The situation, though, has improved since a transitional coalition government was formed in 2020 in line with a revitalized version of a 2015 peace agreement in September 2018.
