South Sudan president says “evil forces” trying to destroy country

May 18, 2017 (JUBA) –President Salva Kiir said that “evil forces” were trying to destroy the country so that they can rewrite the history of the country by driving a wedge among the citizens.

President Kiir spoke on Thursday at the 34th anniversary of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) which was attended by senior military officers and high-level government officials. Last week’s celebrations were postponed on the recommendation of the security situation.

“Obviously, in the last three years we have seen how the forces of evil have tried to bring our country down, they are bent on trying to rewrite history and drive the wedge among our people. They have gone as far as portraying our historical army as an ethnic army,” said the President.

Kiir went on to point out how the South Sudanese military has been compromised from different ethnic groups in the country and called to keep its diversity.

“We should not allow our own hands to destroy the most precious gains we have made since we took arms in 1983,” he said.

Regarding, the national dialogue, Kiir downplayed the criticisms of the delay of launching the political process which has been announced since last December. He announced that the initiative would kick off next week Monday.

“I wanted to inform you that we had been talking about this national dialogue, and this national dialogue has raised so many questions especially those who pretend to be friends to SPLM or friends of South Sudan when they are actually enemies trying to destroy South Sudan,” he said.

“On Monday, 21 of this month, the general secretariat of the national dialogue will be sworn in so that they can start to operationalise the national dialogue,” President Kiir further said.

(ST)