PCCA tells citizens to take action or risk 5 more years of Kiir’s rule

JUBA – South Sudan’s civil rights movement, People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA), has said that the people of South Sudan need to take action against President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s government or risk five more years of what it calls illegitimate rule of President Kiir.

In a statement marking 11^th independence anniversary of South Sudan, the PCCA said President Kiir extended his rule illegally in 2015, did the same in 2018, and in 2021 through the revitalized peace agreement and he is planning to extend it for additional five more years and urged people to take action or risk more suffering.

“In 2015, President Kiir once again extended his rule through an illegitimate parliament. This episode was repeated in 2018 and on the 22^nd of February 2021 through a peace agreement that he and his co-conspirators have used as a tool to consolidate his dictatorship and to oppress the people of South Sudan,” the PCCA said.

“By February 2023, this illegitimate rule will be extended for another 5 five years or more, unless we take action to stop it,” it added.

FEAR OF OUTSPOKEN CITIZENS

The civil rights group further said that President Kiir is afraid of outspoken citizens, citing detention of former governor of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state turned activist Kuel Aguer and outspoken cleric Abraham Chol Maketh.

“We also want to dedicate this day to Kuel Aguer Kuel and other freedom fighters, who remain arbitrarily detained by orders of President Kiir because they have acted as free citizens,” the statement said.

“At this juncture, it is important for the people of South Sudan to understand why the President is so afraid of outspoken citizens. President Kiir plotted and staged a coup against the people of South Sudan in July 2013 when he toppled a duly elected government, that he led, and replaced it with a dictatorship.

“He then exploited existing historical ethnic animosities, which were created and executed by our enemies to divide and rule us, as a springboard to launch unprovoked war.

“The war was not against his purported enemies, the war was against the popular will of the people of South Sudan aimed at inflicting fear and subjugating our people to accept the dictatorship.

“The idea was that when people are subjected to extreme fear, they submit to authority and are easy to control and manipulate. This is the reason everybody has come to call Kiir’s war, ‘a senseless war’, aimed at achieving longevity of illegitimate and weak authoritarian regime.”