On December 20, 2025, the Office of the Senior Presidential envoy, Adut Salva Kiir, organized what was termed as the National Breakfast Prayers for Peace and National Reconciliation in the Republic of South Sudan.
The people were very optimistic to hear the good news about peace through dialogue, but unfortunately, the expectations of the citizens were not met during the occasion.
The national prayers ended without assurances from President Salva Kiir on the trajectory of the country as we move to a New Year 2026, with insecurity and economic collapse, without cash in the banks.
We should not waste our time talking about peace and national reconciliation in South Sudan, while the First Vice-President, Dr Riek Machar, who is the main principal and signatory to R-ARCSS, is still under house arrest in Juba.
The people of South Sudan know the truth. Any prayers without sincerity from the heart cannot be answered by God in heaven. We must pray to the Lord with true intention, as the Bible tells us that we should be the peace makers on earth.
Bravo to the religious leaders for calling upon President Kiir to unconditionally release all the political detainees to consolidate peace and reconciliation, to reunite our citizens amid the crisis.
President Kiir and Dr Machar should lead the reconciliation for the unity. If we continue to talk about peace process in South Sudan without Dr Machar’s involvement, we are very far from that objective.
The Republic of South Sudan is bigger than our individual interests. Leadership is transient, but the nation remains with its people at the end of the day.
The continued detention of Dr Machar, is the clearest indication that the key partners in the R-ARCSS do not want peace. Their intention is to continue to keep the beloved citizens in a dilemma and deviate their attention to the elections that would never consolidate peace in the country.
We thank the United States of America, Norway, the United Kingdom and the international community for standing up to support our people during this man-made crisis in South Sudan. Their call for inclusive dialogue in South Sudan to resolve the ongoing violence is commendable.
I therefore commend the statement of the American Ambassador to South Sudan, Micheal Adler, for his support and recent calls for inclusive dialogue to return to the R-ARCSS.
I urge President Kiir to release Dr Machar to lead the inclusive dialogue and national reconciliation. We reiterate our support for dialogue towards the implementation of the R-ARCSS prior to democratic elections at the end of 2026.
The Junubin are tired of empty slogans and they want to see action this time.
The writer, Dut Majokdit, is the former chairperson of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State, Aweil, and Member of the SPLM-IO Political Bureau (Majokdit2024@gmail.com).
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