Watchdog lauds ‘positive developments’ in Western Equatoria as governor, deputy reconcile

JUBA – South Sudan’s civil society watchdog, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), has welcomed what it described as “positive developments” in Western Equatoria State after Governor Alfred Futuyo Karaba and his deputy Kennedy Ganiko reconciled following weeks of tensions.

Last month, the deputy governor led a group of politicians mainly from the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IG) in withdrawing from the transitional government of Western Equatoria citing ‘incompetent’ leadership of Governor Futuyo.

The government responded in a public rally conducted in Yambio days later by describing the withdrawal from his government as a “failed coup” and called on citizens in the troubled state to continue with their normal duties.

Yesterday, the deputy governor returned to work and the two men resolved their differences and decided to work together for the betterment of the citizens of Western Equatoria who they said have suffered from war and bad politics.

In a statement this evening, CEPO welcomed the reconciliation between the Western Equatoria rivals.

“CEPO welcomes the recent positive developments around the state-level conflict in relation to the agreement between Western Equatoria state governor and deputy governor agreeing to work together and the inter-community peace dialogue agreement on stoppage of deadly violence among them,” CEPO said in the statement extended to Sudans Post.

Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of CEPO, said the anything to do with violence is the responsibility of the elites saying the various conflicts in the country are making of politicians who benefit from continuation of the conflict.

“The violent conflict at state level is absolutely the responsibility of political elites that love to use violence as a ladder for reaching p political power. The profilers of the deadly armed communal violence are political elites from various political parties in the country,” he said.

“The positive response of council of states leadership to call for their immediately now clearly contributed in reducing the political frictions that leads to deadly violence. Evidently the leadership of the council of states need to be engaging practical on state level violations reduction and prevention. CEPO is ready to drive coordinate efforts of development partners for strengthening efforts of the Council of States on communal violence prevention and reduction,” Yakani stressed.

He further said the civil society watchdog “is impressed with the positive developments around western Equatoria state and Twic and Ngok frictions. CEPO is strongly informing the peace spoilers at their various capacities to be named for accountability.”