South Sudan government told mitigation of genocide should be top priority

JUBA – A prominent activist has warned that ongoing violence against civilians in several parts of the country may lead to uncontrollable conflict that will result into genocide, saying prevention of such calamities should be government’s top priority.

This comes after three innocent teenagers were dragged to a nearby bush by soldiers belonging to South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) at a village in Kajo-Keji County of Central Equatoria state before being shot dead.

Earlier this morning, Kajo-Keji County Commissioner Kenyi Erasto told Sudans Post that at least five soldiers have been arrested by the SSPDF command in Kajo-Keji and are being investigated for the killing.

In a statement to Sudans Post, Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) welcomed the arrest of the soldiers accused of standing behind the killing and said they should be tried in Kajo-Keji without being transferred to a different location like Juba.

“It was impressive to hear that the ground commander of SSPDF have arrested the SSPDF soldiers perpetrate the murder of the 3-male civilians. This encourages us to urge the communities of Kajo-Keji to remain calm and should not take the law into their law,” Yakani said.

“The soldiers should not be transfer for trail outside Kajo-keji County because chances of the soldiers will walk free without facing competent court of law outside Kajo-Keji is high based on previous experiences observed,” he stressed.

Yakani further warned that the government in Juba should focus on genocide mitigation as a top priority of the government because ongoing killing across several parts of the country will result in revenge killing and thus genocide.

“South Sudan leadership should take serious action on mitigation of the state-based deadly violence and crimes. All these deadly violence and criminal offenses are planting serious seeds of genocide,” he said, adding that “Prevention of genocide should be top priority for the government now.”