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A coalition of South Sudanese civil society groups has launched a public campaign to demand political change after 10 turbulent and often bloody years of independence, declaring: “We have had enough”.
The world’s newest nation has struggled to recover from a civil war that began just two years after its inception in 2011 and is now grappling with chronic instability and a desperate food crisis.
The Popular Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA) said it wants South Sudanese living in the country and abroad to mobilize and “make their voices heard,” warning that if nothing changes, the country could return to war.
“We invite all citizens of South Sudan to come by the thousands to join the coalition,” PCCA representative Rajab Mohandis said Thursday at a press briefing in the capital Juba.
“We have had enough of war, enough corruption, enough insecurity, enough economic hardship, enough public neglect and leadership failure.”
The current leadership of President Salva Kiir “has completely failed in its responsibility,” Mohandis accused, warning that if South Sudanese do not act, the country is heading for 10 more years.
Map of South Sudan. By (AFP / File) This is the first time in the young history of South Sudan that such a call for public action has been made and by such a large sample including academics, civil society, think tanks, lawyers, groups. women and young people as well as former senior government officials. .
There has not yet been a response from the coalition government to a 12-page statement released by the PCCA on Friday to coincide with the anniversary of the 2005 death of rebel leader John Garang.
But any public demonstration could see a firm response from the security forces.
“Insoluble political crisis”
South Sudan officially separated from its northern neighbor, Sudan, on July 9, 2011, on stages of great jubilation.
But a decade later, there’s not much to celebrate, with an economy in tatters, hundreds of thousands facing hunger and escalating insecurity and community violence.
Mohandis said the country “was sinking deeper into an intractable political crisis” and that a power-sharing deal between Kiir and his nemesis turned deputy Riek Machar to end the brutal civil war was “in the process of being broken down. collapse “.
“We therefore have at hand a real possibility that the country will fall back into war,” warned Mohandis, executive director of the Organization for Responsive Governance.
South Sudan has struggled with lawlessness and inter-ethnic violence since the civil war that left nearly 400,000 people dead.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir (right) pictured in February 2020 with his former rival turned deputy Riek Machar. By ALEX MCBRIDE (AFP / File) Peace remains fragile despite the 2018 ceasefire, with many areas of the vast country of 12 million people ungoverned and violent, and security forces underfunded and divided.
Earlier this week, the United Nations demanded an end to extrajudicial killings after the gruesome execution of at least 42 people, including boys, in the northwest and center of the country.
Abraham Awolich, a PCCA representative from the Sudd Institute national think tank, said it was time for the South Sudanese “to take control of their country.”
“For the past 10 years, the people of South Sudan have remained asleep, they have not challenged the status quo in the Republic of South Sudan and we cannot expect to have a democratic country without active citizenship.
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