![South Sudan youth ride atop a bus as they chant slogans in support of the referendum on southern independence in Juba, January 4, 2011. [Photo credit REUTERS]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/south_sudan_youth001.jpg?resize=1024%2C645&quality=89&ssl=1)
The country has been plagued by conflict and instability since December 2013, and the war has left millions of people displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance.
The economy is also in shambles, with inflation at record highs and food prices soaring.
In a speech on even of independence anniversary, President Salva Kiir acknowledged challenges facing his government in implementing a 2018 peace deal meant to bring permanent peace but said he and other signatories are making efforts that would allow for South Sudan to conduct its first-ever elections.
“Since 2018, we have encountered and continue to encounter challenges in the implementation of the R-ARCSS,” he said.
“Fortunately for us, none of these challenges affected our intention to implement the Agreement. Each time we faced hurdles, we managed to resolve them peacefully through dialogue.”
The president called for permanent “peace and stability” in order to allow return of the millions of citizens displaced by war and for peaceful elections to take place.
“We need stability in order to allow our people to voluntarily return home from refugee and IDP camps, to allow our people reconcile and for the government to be able to hold credible elections,” he said.
“Achieving peace and stability is the only way that will allow us to exit from the cycle of transitional governments and violence once and for all.
“To this effect, I am calling upon you, my fellow citizens to work with the peace partners and my colleagues in government collectively for peace and stability in our country,” he added.
The anniversary celebrations were muted in many parts of the country, as people were more focused on their daily struggles than on celebrating independence.
In the town of Bentiu, in the north of the country, people were still reeling from the recent floods that had destroyed their homes and crops.
“We have nothing left,” said Nyekuoth, a 40-year-old mother of 5 who has been living at the UN mission protection of civilian site in Bentiu’s Rubkona. “We are just trying to survive.”
In the capital, Juba, there were no official government celebrations, but some citizens conducted individuals’ celebrations.
The country is currently in a state of limbo, as the government has failed to implement peace agreements since 2015.
This has led to widespread corruption and mismanagement, and many people are frustrated with the lack of progress.
But I don’t think that the issue of outbreak of war,2013 can delay the celebration for independent all the time.
The independence of South Sudan in 2011 has been politized by the outsiders and their reasoning invested on how to make South Sudan a failed State. If am mistaken, what country on earth that can plunged into war after two years independence?
To my thinking and prediction, the deal was made before independent of South Sudan and it was concluded that let South Sudanese go and obtains their independence and from there we shall deal with them as we make sure that their country got damaged.
Well, if the government of South Sudan was not fearing these people and outsiders who are meddling their politics, than why not try to carry out the celebration of independence and let us see, who will started attacking the public’s need for enjoying their independence in the freedom square of South Sudan.
Second item to that, may be the current government in Juba is the very one doing that, meaning that they are patriotic enough to serves their own people from the wounds of independence. When Southern Sudan by then, when they were fighting for independence, tell me which members of Splm recruited to the national Congress party of former president Bashiir system as Salva Kiir did right now. The current government of Salva Kiir in Juba and the whole South Sudan might be a photocopy investing within the system of former president Bashiir, which South Sudanese in general knowledge about it.
If you people are not for that, which I mentioned from above, then why Salva Kiir`s government rejected strong Splm cadres like Nhial Deng and Atem Garang, while they are most strong Splm cadres I recommended in my writings all the time, in concludes Kuel Aguer and others.
South Sudan right now, remains in a dilemma of deals and the grounds for marketing and advertisement with no hope to their own citizens, the country where there cars with number plates to meddled outside politics, like the one of Kenya where agencies in Kenya attacks former president house, Uhuru Kenya and using South Sudanese cars.
Yes I agree with president Salva Kiir at some point, and with the side of humanitarian assistance and repatriation of fugitive of war back home as the mean of conducting general election in South Sudan, come 2024 or 2025. When you see me writing about hold out group, to be the part of the revitalized peace accords, it does not means that am in support of them, but aiming at the stability of Sudan South where millions have wasted their own lives.
The commentator is an independent Journalist and associates Lawyer who is residing outside South Sudan.