14 January 2017•Update: 15 January 2017
By Parach Mach
JUBA, South Sudan
With one-voice, clerics and traditional leaders in war-torn South Sudan have pledged to promote dialogue aimed at preventing further bitter ethnic rivalries caused by ongoing civil strife in the world’s youngest nation.
Elders can play a key leadership role in enhancing reconciliation efforts among warring communities, and building lasting peace, Deng Macham Angui, the head of South Sudan Council of Chiefs told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview Saturday.
“We have raised concerns over the violence taking place and pledged to promote dialogue aimed at preventing bloodshed in our communities. With the obvious respect and hope that elders and religious group command, we will eventually pull the country together,” he said.
He said the chiefs have agreed to form a 29-member committee that will be comprised of chiefs and some religious groups to visit states and disseminate messages of reconciliation and unity at the grassroots.
“The council of chiefs composed of 64 tribes of South Sudan met in December last year and set out their plans to support peace, establish social clubs to unite people from different tribes,” he explained.
South Sudan has been torn by deadly ethnic tensions because of the easy acquiring of arms left over from a two-decade civil war that ended in 2011 when it gained independence from Sudan. Those tensions resulted into targeted killings and have claimed over hundreds of lives in a conflict fought along ethnic lines.
Catholic Bishop of Yei Diocese, Erkolano Ladu Tombe revealed to Anadolu Agency that religious leaders are talking to warring parties including armed groups, saying they want to restore peace and stability at the country’s grassroot levels.
“We are very concerned about the level of violence and targeted killings along ethnic lines that have been taking place on main highways. We are asking armed groups to quit killing and join peace."
“Peace and unity cannot be achieved through violence,” Tombe said.
He urges the South Sudanese politicians to adopt non-violent politics for peace if the national dialogue is to succeed. “Talking to various militias carrying arms can help us to identify the root causes of civil war when non-violent approach is employed.”
The international peace-monitoring group, Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) mandated to monitor the peace deal between conflicting parties last October during a meeting of 655 chiefs of South Sudan, said that traditional leaders have successfully served as mediators and adjudicators during conflict.
JMEC chairman Festus Mogae said in a statement that the elders' voice “must continue to be heard across communities and throughout the country”.
“What we need at this stage, is achieving maximum awareness about peace agreement among communities. This is why nationwide campaigns and reconciliation is critical,” said Mogae.
Mogae urged inclusive participation in the implementation of transitional security arrangements.
South Sudan was plunged in civil war when a long running political feud between president Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar turned into violence, much of its along ethnic lines.
Kiir, Machar signed a shaky peace deal last August. Four months upon signing a peace deal to end more than three years of brutal civil war, another conflict broke up first from the Presidential palace in mid July and quickly engulfs the city, ultimately forcing Machar out of the capital, Juba.
Despite stepping up of Machar’s former chief negotiator Taban Deng Gai to replace him to implement the fragile peace agreement, conflict around the country has continued, ignoring efforts of the monitoring team and the region to convince both sides to lay down arms and implement peace agreement.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and another 2.4 million people displaced from their homes with 4.3 million face starvation.
