Upper Nile state launches peace deal implementation drive
September 15, 2015 (JUBA) – Authorities in South Sudan’s oil-producing Upper Nile state have launched a campaign to create awareness on the recently-signed peace accord.
“People have been asking and I also have been asking this question time and again: what happened to the culture of unity, culture of love, culture of forgiveness, culture of peaceful coexistence which was the source of our strength and solidarity during the anyanya war and our liberation struggle for independence. Why all over sudden this culture disappeared at the time we could have consolidated it more and make it an engine of our diversity”, said Thon.
He was optimistic that citizens would support government in the implementation of the peace reached between president Salva Kiir and armed opposition leader, Riek Machar.
“We used to ask ourselves what is after this peace? We do not know what is coming. We have a very long, painful road ahead but I know that the involvement of our people in the implementation can help change a country’s course”, stressed the caretaker governor.
“The people that I know in Upper Nile state and in the country at large have more than just hope, they have the way and as the state government, we will work with them to help us in the peaceful implementation and so we see which other doors they will have to open again,” said Thon, who is still active in the military, despite his recent appointment.
Upper Nile’s information minister, Peter Hoth Tuach separately told Sudan Tribune that a mamoth crowd welcomed the caretaker governor as he returned from Juba last week.
“Our governor has come and has embarked on a number of arrangements to implement the peace agreement. He started with mobilisation campaigns for implementation of the peace agreement,” Tuach said from Renk, a strategic town in the oil-producing region.
Various committees, he said, have now been formed and given tasks to disseminate the information on the recently-signed agreement to the population at grassroot levels.
(ST)