The authorities in Central Equatoria State’s Yei River County have called on the different stakeholders to work collectively to realize lasting peace and security in South Sudan.
As Yei River County and peace partners joined the rest of the world to commemorate the International Peace Day on Sunday, a call for lasting peace was central.
Speaking during the event, Gaga Frank, the Yei River County youth Association chairperson, said there is a need for every stakeholder to work together in the quest for peace through the promotion of communal dialogues and mitigation of conflicts, among others. He stressed that conflict will never bring peace but will obliterate the country’s social fabric.
“Let me begin by emphasizing the need for peace and unity among our communities, and most importantly, among our youth. The youth are not just leaders of tomorrow, but we are leaders of today. Let us reject tribalism, divisions, and hate,” he said. “Let us choose dialogue, reconciliation, and respect among ourselves as youth and among our different communities in Yei River County. We strongly call for grassroots dialogues and reconciliation among all our communities. We cannot move forward while we are still divided by history, hatred, and unresolved conflicts.”
“The time has come for all of us, elders, youth, women, and leaders to sit together and seek the language of peace, which is a responsibility of every one of us,” Gaga added.
For her part, Maneno Grace, the deputy chairperson of the Yei Civil Society Organization Forum, lauded the efforts of all partners in ensuring that peace prevails. She said humanitarian workers must not be a target of those engaged in conflict because it negatively impacts communities.
“As civil society organizations, we also face rampant abduction of humanitarian workers, and it is something that we are calling upon everyone to solve,” she said. “If you know that you are part of participating in such abductions of humanitarian workers, we are calling upon you, please, to stop such actions because if we continue limiting the activities of the civil society organizations, you are not only affecting the organizations that they are working in, but you are affecting the communities that these organizations are serving.”
“Imagine an organization that is rendering health services to the communities and then you end up abducting them, at the end of the day, the communities suffer, so let us work together and see that we live in a peaceful environment,” Maneno added.
Meanwhile, Hillary John Konga, the Executive Director of Yei River County, called for joint efforts in the quest for peace.
“My people, what is very important here is to act now for a peaceful Yei River County. Let us cultivate the culture of peace,” he said. “Peace is among us all; it is a collective responsibility. Let us all work for peace. We start from Yei, then expand to the whole country.”
The International Day of Peace is observed annually on 21 September to strengthen the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations globally.
The day was marked under the global theme, “Act now for a peaceful world”, with the county theme,” Act now for a peaceful Yei River County.”