President Kiir. Photo: File/Accord
Juba, December 25, 2021 (SSNA) — President Salva Kiir urges the people of South Sudan to embrace peace as the nation slowly recovering from years of civil war.
In his 2021 Christmas message obtained by the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA), Kiir urges people to forget the past and forgive.
“As a people emerging from the conflict situation, we all need to support peace by shunning violence in all its forms and by choosing peaceful means to address our grievances whenever they arise,” the statement reads in part.
The President urges the citizens to respect aid personnel and vows to apprehend anyone who committed crimes against humanitarian or government workers.
“We ought to demonstrate care towards those who serve in our communities, especially in remote locations, whether they are government administrators or humanitarian workers. The uncalled-for violence against humanitarian workers must cease immediately. Those who are committing these crimes will not hide from the long arms of our law indefinitely. They will be caught no matter how long this will take and they will pay for their crimes,” Kiir says.
The President also asserts that those who “contemptible culture that promotes the killing of the innocents” cannot be tolerated as the young nation is still struggling to recover from what he described as “senseless war.”
Civil war broke out in December 2013 after Kiir accused his political rivals of plotting a coup against his government. The IGAD-brokered revitalized peace which gave birth to the current transitional unity government has yet to be fully implemented.
South Sudan’s main opposition party led by First Vice President Riek Machar has on many occasions accused Kiir of deliberately working to impede full implementation of the agreement.