Juba, Sep 14 : South Sudan's transitional government announced the postponement of long-delayed elections and extended the transition period by two years after failing to meet key provisions of a peace agreement.

This is the second time the country, which gained independence in 2011, has postponed elections and extended a transition period that began in February 2020, Xinhua news agency reported.

The extension follows recommendations from both election-related institutions and the security sector, which stressed that the additional time would allow for the completion of essential tasks before the next elections, said Martin Elia Lomuro, minister for Cabinet Affairs in the transitional government.

He noted that the government has reset the transition period, which will begin in February 2025 and last until 2026.

The world's youngest nation was expected to elect leaders in the country's first-ever general elections on December 22, 2026, at the end of the transitional period.

The Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan was signed in 2018 to end the bloody civil war that had killed some 400,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Under the agreement, the government was supposed to be dissolved on September 22 as South Sudan prepared for elections in December this year.

/IANS