Watchdog urges ‘nonviolent’ approaches to end South Sudan political crisis ahead of independence anniversary

JUBA – A prominent South Sudan civil society organization is urging political leaders in the world’s youngest country to resort to nonviolent approaches in solving political crisis engulfing the country saying “the decade of South Sudan independence from the rest of Sudan is described with dominance of violated armed conflict from 2013 till today.”

The Community Empowerment and Progress Organization (CEPO), said in a statement ahead of South Sudan’s 10^th Independence Anniversary that one of the challenges for South Sudan after ten years of independence is the lack of political commitment by the leaders toward democratic transformation.

“On 9th July 2011 South Sudanese gained the aim for being as independent state. But the challenge before South Sudan is the political commitment for democratic governance. This challenge made the state of South Sudan fall into deadly armed violence immediately after one and half year of independence. The 90% of the first decade of South Sudan independence is described with a struggle for political commitment for democratic governance,” the CEPO statement signed by the group’s Executive Director, Edmund Yakani, reads in part.

“This is simply due to wrong political attitudes from most political elites from the various political establishments,” the statement added.

The statement revealed that the CEPO “will be issuing full decade of independence observation report with focus of demonstrating citizens’ perspectives on gains and losses of the first decade of independence” to commemorate the 10^th independence anniversary.

“The beginning of the second decade of independence from it alfa to mega requires political will for transitioning the country from violence to peace by the political elites. The golden opportunity the political elites have at hand current for transitioning the country from violence to peace is the genuine implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan. Mr. Yakani stressed,” it said.

The civil society organization further urged “the various political establishments in South Sudan to embrace the culture non-violent political approach for sorting out their political grievances or discontentment. This recent trend observed in the first decade of the independence where use of armed violence for sorting out political grievance is unacceptable because it has claimed lives of innocent civilians, displaced population and destroyed properties.”

“CEPO will be organizing cultural events for marking the first decade of South Sudan independence from the rest of Sudan under the theme “First independence decade: Lessons learned for informing the second decade.”

“Finally CEPO observed that the first decade of independence is described by imposed suffering on citizens because of political elite’s rivalry over control of political power that leads to control of wealth. Without political elites stopping the political attitude of power transfer in violent manner the country road to peace and stability will still be longer.”