President Salva Kiir closed the 8th Command Council Conference of the South Sudan People’s Defence Force (SSPDF) with a passionate call to the holdout groups to drop weapons and embrace dialogue.
“To some of our brothers who are still in the bush, come back home and join the government so that we can bring a sustainable peace to our country. I urge you to put down your guns and resume dialogue on peace,” said Kiir.
On the call for peace, he urged the SSPDF to step up their game to deal with issues stemming from insecurity, emphasising that the country would not tolerate any other circle of war.
“Let us all avoid going back to war. We are citizens of this country, and all of us have a right to live; so let us avoid senseless war. “You must stop the war since war is destructive, but peace brings foreign investors to invest in the country.”
“We need development, we need schools, hospitals, and roads,” President Kiir reiterated.
He also reaffirmed his commitment to implementing the agreement in accordance with the timelines outlined in the roadmap, which includes an extension of the transition period.
“We can accomplish outstanding tasks in the implementation of the peace agreement. “We do not want people to descend into war during elections,” he said.
Kiir said the latest infrastructural projects are part of a wider plan to prepare for the next election.
“The work that has begun on making connections on major roads such as Juba-Bor, Bor-Ayod, Akobo, and now Terkeka-Rumbek are great signs of development and accessibility.”
“We are about to open the Juba-Bor road, and we are going to launch the road construction from Bor to Ayod, Akobo, respectively. “All these areas of South Sudan, we need to connect them with good roads,” Kiir added.
He promised to review the resolutions and recommendations made by the command council before approval and consideration.
The Minister of National Security, Gen. Obote Mamur, urged the army to shun dirty politics and embrace the spirit of nationalism.
“You are not an army of individuals; you are an army of the Republic of South Sudan and a symbol of our flag. “And as an army, we need your protection to defend our sovereign territory, and to protect our president and the people of South Sudan,” Obote Mamur noted.
The conference was held under the theme “SSPDF: Building Trust, Understanding, and Implementing the Transitional Security Arrangement.”
The Command Council deliberated the progress of the implementation of the security arrangement.