S. Sudan’s Council of Churches unveil peace plan

April 18, 2015 (JUBA) – The South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) has unveiled a peace plan to help the warring parties end the conflict that has distabilised the young nation.

The religious body, in a statement, said they were determined to play leading roles to bring peace in the young nation, calling on church heads to commit themselves by uniting together for peace.

The need for peace and reconciliation, the clerics said, forms the basis of their new peace plan, emphasising that there was no moral justification to continue fighting and killing innocent people.

The religious leaders expressed disappointments with the way negotiations between the two main warring parties were being handled, saying discussions should not be about, position, systems of governance and wealth-sharing while people were still being killed.

“What is presently needed is a renewed political will to end the conflict,” partly reads a statement issued by SSCC.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million forced to flee their homes due to the violence in the country.

The clerics called for full respect by the warring parties for humanitarian law.

“It is unacceptable that unarmed civilians, especially children, become targets. Sadly, there is a general indifference in the face of these tragedies, which is a dramatic sign of the loss of that sense of responsibility for our brothers and sisters on which every civil society is based,” said the statement from the various religious denominations.

Last month, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) proposed an IGAD-Plus structure that will bring in other African regions, including development partners such as the African Union, the United Nations, China and the Troika (US, Norway and Britain).

The IGAD-Plus peace initiative, under a new expanded mediation mechanism, has prepared a draft proposal for a final peace agreement which would be the last opportunity for South Sudan’s two warring factions to restore peace in the country.

The new proposal came weeks after the last round of peace talks collapsed on 6 March when the two principal leaders failed to agree on almost every outstanding issue.

IGAD, which had been mediating the peace process between the two rivals since January 2014, has so far been unsuccessful in brokering a deal to end the ongoing conflict.

(ST)