NEW YORK – Vice President Josephine Lagu addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday, presenting a lengthy report on implementation of the revitalized agreement, which she claimed has been holding. She also said the government is providing basic services and more states are producing their own food. However, a Juba Witness fact-check has found that much of it is untrue.
Taking to the podium on behalf of President Kiir, the vice president underscored that South Sudan is the youngest country in the world, born out of 50 years of brutal armed liberation struggle.
Unfortunately, she said, the country descended into an internal civil war only two years from independence. Lagu narrated that the war ended with the signing of the 2018 peace deal signed between the warring parties with the support of regional and international community.
She underscored that the peace agreement has provisions on governance structure, security sector reforms, transitional justice mechanism, economic sector reforms, and truth and reconciliation commission.
Affirmative action
Vice President Lagu stated that the appointment of two female vice presidents to the unity government, fulfills the 35% affirmative action stipulated in the agreement.
However, that may not be true, according to Sarah Nyanaath, a signatory to the 2018 peace agreement, who recently noted that South Sudanese women continue to be underrepresented in decision making, despite their critical role in peace mediations and community healing processes.
Nyanaath said several challenges continue to hinder women’s participation in leadership to secure the 35 percent affirmative action.
She argued that the appointment of women to public office does not equate to the affirmative action unless, women in the grassroots level are truly heard and included in decision making.
“We remain vastly under representation, mostly in decision-making. The challenges such as political exclusion and access to resources are limited for the women, and harmful social norms are still at large, and of course that hinders women participation for them to secure the affirmative action on the 35%,” she said.
Moreover, peace monitor R-JMEC has repeatedly warned that the 35% affirmative action was dwindling due to the dismissal of women and their replacement with men in leadership positions.
Peace implementation
Vice President Lagu stated that South Sudan’s security arrangement under Chapter 2 of the peace deal, is in place.
On the unification of forces, she stated that the first phase has seen the completion of training and the deployment of some of the forces, while the rest await further deployment.
“The second phase of the security sector reforms is due to start imminently this October 2025. This will complete the second phase of the second protocol of the agreement,” she said.
That is not true because the even before renewed conflicts in early 2025, the ceasefire monitoring body CTSAM-VM had warned that less than 10 percent of the 53,000 forces previously graduated, have been deployed.
The mechanism warned that the rest of the forces had already deserted cantonment sites due to lack of food, medicine and the stagnating process.
Vice President Lagu stated that other protocols in the agreement, including public finance management reforms, are ongoing, while adding that transitional justice mechanisms are in progress, and a truth and reconciliation commission will be established under the auspices of the African Union.
She stated that although the implementation of the peace agreement has been slower than expected due to financial constraints, some of the members of the international community have been contributing in kind.
Lagu said the implementation of the peace agreement is about 60% executed, and that the pact has held for seven years, and a relative peace has been attained, thus giving hope to the South Sudanese people.
“Many South Sudanese have returned from the neighbouring countries and the diaspora (5:04) and are rebuilding their lives and contributing to national development.”
But the peace deal is neither 60% executed nor has it been holding, as Lagu claimed.
In fact, UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan warned in June 2025 that the 2018 Revitalized Agreement was at serious risk of collapse and called for urgent, coordinated regional intervention to salvage the faltering process.
The Commission stressed that escalating military offensives, political crackdowns, and foreign military presence are not only accelerating the breakdown of the Agreement but also fueling deep fear, instability and widespread trauma among the people of South Sudan.
‘We produce what we eat’
Vice President Lagu told the assembly that the policy of South Sudan government’s policy is to “let’s produce what we eat”. and that some states in the country are now self-sufficient in food production.
“As a consequence, some states in our country now are self-sufficient in food production which contributes imminently to reduction of poverty, thus the attainment of SDG 1 and SDG 2.”
But that’s not true because South Sudan relies heavily on imports, with approximately 90% of its consumed goods, capital, and services being imported from countries like Uganda, Kenya, and China, due to its lack of infrastructure, limited productive capacity, and lack of manufacturing or commercial agriculture.
Lagu further said the government is providing health care, building health care infrastructure, improving maternal and child care, raising awareness about communicable diseases, and providing vaccinations for diseases such as cholera, mpox, and malaria, in collaboration with partners.
But a new UN report found that systemic government corruption in South Sudan has siphoned tens of billions of dollars of public revenue and unleashed immense crises that must be urgently addressed.
Titled “Plundering a Nation: How Rampant Corruption Unleashed a Human Rights Crisis in South Sudan,” the report is based on two years of independent investigations and analysis by the Commission.
It documents how oil and non-oil revenues are siphoned off through opaque off-budget schemes and politically connected contracts while millions of South Sudanese are denied basic services.
“Our report tells the story of the plundering of a nation: corruption is not incidental, it is the engine of South Sudan’s decline”, said Yasmin Sooka, Chairperson of the Commission.
“It is driving hunger, collapsing health systems, and causing preventable deaths, as well as fuelling deadly armed conflict over resources. The suffering of South Sudanese civilians is a direct consequence of the brazen plundering of public revenues since independence in 2011.”
The education, public health, and justice systems are in crisis. Most civil servants are underpaid or unpaid. International donors now spend more on South Sudan’s basic services than the Government itself, and the country ranks at the bottom of both the UN Human Development Index and the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.
“Instead of directing national wealth toward serving the population, the country’s political leaders have systematically diverted both oil and non-oil revenues, through corruption and unaccountable schemes entrenched throughout government,” said Commissioner Barney Afako.
