Government hopes for peace as election period approaches     

By Benjamin Takpiny

The Minister of Information, Communication, Technology and Postal Services, Michael Makuei Lueth has said they are hoping for peace to continue to prevail as they prepare for elections next year.

“On Behalf of the cabinet and my own behalf, I congratulate the people of South Sudan on this occasion, the birth of Jesus Christ, the King of Peace, hoping that South Sudan will be in peace and harmony this time, will not be at war again, especially at a time when we need peace most because we are moving for elections in 2024,” said Makuei during press briefing in Juba after the weekly cabinet meeting on Friday.

He said that South Sudan cannot afford to descend into another conflict as election period looms.

Makuei said that they are moving on well on the implementation of the remaining tasks in the 2018 revitalized peace agreement.

“There are certain provisions that cannot just be implemented, but will be implemented in due course, there are some provisions which are already implemented, and the process is going on for the security arrangements, phase two of the security arrangements will enter the training centers in January and they will continue in the training centers for a maximum of three months,” he disclosed.

 He said the second phase upon completing three-month training will mark the end of implementation of the security arrangements.

Makuei said that the arms embargo imposed since 2018 by the UN Security Council has forced them to deploy the first phase of unified forces without fire arms. He urged the UNSC to lift the arms embargo such that the forces are armed.

“Our main problem is the deployment of these forces without firearms.  We have been calling on the Security Council, the region and the international community to come to our support so that the arms embargo is lifted,” he said.

 “A soldier is not a soldier as long as he doesn’t have a gun, he can be in uniform, but without a gun he is incomplete, and also if he has a gun without uniform he is incomplete so he must be complete. These soldiers whom we have graduated and deployed in phase one are incomplete and this is what we are saying. We did not want to deploy them, but the international community pressed us so that they are deployed. Okay, we have deployed them and this is what we are telling them now, we have deployed them according to your pressure now lift the arms embargo so that we arm them,” Makuei added.

Makuiei said they will not accept soldiers for phase two to enter training centers without fire arms.