By Charles K Mark
Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS) urges South Sudanese leader to place the interests of the people before parties.
Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, during a press conference on Thursday, said that leaders should be conscious of election-related conflicts that are likely to arise due to dissatisfaction of citizens.
He recounted that since the achievement of independence in 2011, South Sudanese have not enjoyed the peace that their liberators fought to achieve.
“We therefore pray that South Sudanese put the nation’s interests before their partisan interests or affiliations,” he urged.
The Archbishop wondered about the circulation of arms among the civil population and asked how the deadly arms could have been acquired.
For the coming elections, the ECSS primate proposed that the leaders should detect at an earlier stage, issues that may lead to violence, such as what happened in Kenya, Uganda, and DR Congo.
Meanwhile Edmond Yakani, Executive Director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, (CEPO) on meeting the religious leaders shared his discussions with the peace principals.
He revealed the need for faith-based leaders to take on the responsibility of engaging the political leaders to make timely and genuine political decisions for the creation of a conducive environment for the conduct of the elections.
“I’ve shared the differences the political leaders have with regards to whether we’re going for an election with a meeting prerequisite or whether we’re going for an election without meeting prerequisites,” Yakani stated.
The activists brought to the attention of the religious leaders the ongoing deadly violence in the country that requires the religious leaders to speak to the political leaders to make quick decisions for mitigating the breakdown of the country into violence.