New Delhi [India], February 8 (ANI): Anil Nautiyal, currently serving as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of South Sudan.

The Ministry of External Affairs in a press release said, 'Shri Anil Nautiyal (YOA: 2004), presently Joint Secretary in the Ministry, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of South Sudan.'

'He is expected to take up the assignment shortly,' the release added.

Nautiyal will replace Vishnu Kumar Sharma as the Ambassador of India to South Sudan.

South Sudan was a part of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from 1899-1955 under joint British Egyptian rule. After two civil wars (1962-72 and 1983-2005), it became an autonomous region (Southern Sudan ) in Sudan.

As per the MEA, in 2005, a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed [ceremony attended by the then Minister of State for External Affairs, E Ahmed] between the Government of Sudan and Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Nairobi which led to the autonomy for the Southern part with a provision for South Sudanese referendum on independence in six years' time.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011, following a referendum in January, 2011. India was one of the first countries to recognise independent South Sudan and the then Vice President Hamid Ansari attended the Independence Day celebrations in Juba on July 9, 2011.

Indian Consulate in Juba opened in October 2007, was upgraded to the level of Embassy in March 2012. South Sudan also opened its Embassy at New Delhi in August 2012. South Sudan and India have always enjoyed cordial and friendly relations.

Following a civil war that started in December 2013, the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) was signed among the warring partners in Addis Ababa on 12 September 2018. A transitional government of national unity (i.e. coalition of signatory political partners based on the power sharing formula envisaged in the Agreement) is in place at present.

The main mandate of the transitional government is to implement the R-ARCSS and hold elections for a democratic transfer of power by February 2025 (the transition period, which was to end in February 2023, was extended by political partners by consensus in August 2022). (ANI)