All political parties in South Sudan should take "urgent steps" to allow for long-delayed elections to be held late this year, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote in a report published Wednesday.

South Sudan has not held an election since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011, and the nation is plagued by chronic violence, poverty and natural disasters.

"It is my view that the parties must commit to take urgent steps to achieve a 'critical mass' of implementation necessary for a peaceful conduct of free, fair and credible elections," Guterres wrote in the report.

Plans for elections have been hobbled by relentless feuding between President Salva Kiir and his arch-nemesis, Vice President Riek Machar.

Forces loyal to the two rivals fought a bloody civil war between 2013 and 2018 that left around 400,000 people dead and millions displaced.

A peace deal was agreed in 2018 that laid out a "transition" period to pave the way for general elections.

International observers remain skeptical that the new timeline culminating in December elections will be maintained, as Kiir and Machar have yet to reach a consensus on staging the elections, or even which offices would be up for grabs.

After an assessment of the situation, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) concluded that "stakeholders remained in urgent need of technical, legal and operational expertise and assistance for elections to be conducted in December 2024 or after," Guterres wrote.

"Essential election tasks and preconditions continued to remain behind schedule," he added, noting that holding national, state and local elections on the same day "would be challenging."

The country's national elections commission announced last week that voter registration would begin in June.

But Guterres noted the delays in not only registration but a national census, the writing of a national constitution and ways of repatriating the displaced.

"South Sudanese leaders have also acknowledged that the widespread subnational violence poses challenges to the conduct of elections," he wrote.

In March, the UN Security Council only extended the mandate of UN peacekeepers in South Sudan by a month, and was awaiting the publication of this report to reassess that mandate. A vote on the issue is expected later this month.

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