Kiir told to use peace forces to protect civilians, curtail communal violence

JUBA – South Sudan’s activist Edmund Yakani has appealed to President Salva Kiir Mayardit to use the recently-graduated part of the unified forces in the protection of civilians and curtailing communal violence which has killed hundreds since the start of the year.

This comes after Kiir met the country’s peace minister Stephen Par Kuol at the state-house J1 where they discussed next steps in the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement and more importantly the graduation of the forces and dissemination of the agreement.

In a statement extended to Sudans Post, Yakani who is the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) urged the country’s leadership to take serious steps in the implementation of the agreement and to use the graduated peace forces to impose laws, protect civilians and curtail ethnic or communal violence.

“CEPO is urging the leadership of the country to take serious steps for delivering the peace agreement timely especially during this remaining timeline for the end of the transitional period before 22 February 2023,” Yakani said in the statement.

“The already graduated unified forces in first batch should be strategically redeployed with the focus on enhancing state capacities on protection of civilian, prevention of deadly inter-communal violence and enforcement of rule of law,” the statement added.

The outspoken activist said “the political leadership of the country have to double efforts for ensuring that the left timeline is effectively used before rollout of the roadmap” and urged the signatories to the peace agreement to “speedy up the implementation of the pending tasks of the peace agreement.”