PCCA renews call for anti-gov’t protests as key peace partners renew hostilities

JUBA – South Sudan’s civil rights movement, People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA), has renewed calls for citizens to take to streets of Juba and important towns to protest the ongoing escalation of conflict in the country between SSPDF and SPLA-IO which signals possible return to conflict.

Last week, fierce fighting erupted in several parts of Unity and Upper Nile states with main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny accusing the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces of initiating these attacks.

The SPLM-IO then pulled out of peace implementation mechanisms including those monitoring the revitalized peace agreement’s implementation such as the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC) and the CTSAMVM to protest the attacks.

In a statement extended to Sudans Post, the PCCA said it was not surprised, but concerned, by the renewal of hostilities by the key peace partners and said that this outbreak of clashes is an indication that something is not right with the implementation of the 2018 peace deal.

“The People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA) is not surprised but seriously concerned about the resumption of direct military confrontations between the parties to the R-ARCSS. For months, the PCCA has been warning the people of South Sudan and the world about the collapse of the R-ARCSS and the failure of the RTGoNU,” the group said in the statement.

“Now, it is apparent that something is seriously wrong with the implementation of the R-ARCSS, the agreement that is touted as the only framework for peace in South Sudan,” the statement added.

The statement urged the people of South Sudan to reject the return of the country to civil war and called on citizens in Juba and other important towns, to take to the streets to demonstrate their frustration against the parties implementing the 2018 pace agreement.

“Considering this dangerous turn of events, the PCCA calls upon all the people of South Sudan, to reject any return to war and to strongly condemn the latest military confrontations and drumming for war in the country,” the PCCA said.

“The people of South Sudan should demonstrate their rejection of war mongering and bloodletting by flooding the streets of Juba, Wau, Malakal, and all major population centers in protest of this slow but steady drifting of this country back to war,” the statement added.