THEJUBAMIRROR
JUBA – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Saturday called on the country’s holdout opposition groups to drop their weapons and accept peaceful dialogue to achieve peace for the people of South Sudan.
This comes after five opposition groups that are not signatories to the 2018 revitalized peace agreement called for a roundtable conference outside the country to decide the way forward as the transitional period ends with looming extension.
In his statement marking the martyrs’ day, Kiir stressed the need for the holdout groups to accept dialogue.
“I call upon our brothers and sisters in the holdout groups to accept dialogue as a way of honoring those who gave their lives for our country,” he said.
“Let us embrace dialogue as the tool for resolving our differences, because it is the surest way to achieving rapid development in the country,” he added.
CEPO WELCOMES CALL
In a statement, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) welcomed the president’s call for dialogue with holdout groups and said that call should be in line with the Rome peace talks.
“CEPO appreciates the president call for roundtable with the hold-out groups and this should in accordance to the Roma Peace Talks as a strategy of embrace inclusive political participation for transitioning the situation our country from violence to peace,” said the statement signed by the Executive Director of CEPO Edmund Yakani.
