Regional Leaders Hail South Sudan Peace Agreement

By Jok P Mayom

JUBA, 28 August 2015 [Gurtong] – The leaders of Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia who witnessed the signing at Freedom Hall in Juba Wednesday said the move will improve security in the region.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said the regional block is committed to lasting peace in South Sudan and pledged continued support.

“ As a region we have been committed and engaged from the very start of the conflict 20 months or so ago with the determination to work together with you to find a lasting solution that can help bring peace to South Sudan. Help us bring stability to the region so that all of us together can join hands and focus on the prosperity of our region and our people”, he said.

“I know it has been a difficult time for all of you because as with any conflict there are wounds but we must be guided rather by the spirit not of anger and finger pointing but of reconciliation and trying to understand that we cannot leave in the past but focus our attentions on the future”, he said.

Ethiopian Prime Minister and current Chairperson of the IGAD Assembly Hailemariam Desalegn termed the signing of the peace deal as a milestone in the history of South Sudan.

“This is the time when the people of South Sudan deserve to stay in peace and tranquillity and to compensate the lost time and concentrate in development and fighting poverty”, said Desalegn.

He pledged his government and people’s support towards peace in the young nation.

Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni expressed regrets on how the conflict has hampered the development and growth of South Sudan’s capital Juba.

“Juba has been growing very fast and this war interferes with that growth. We first came here in 2005 and there was nothing but now there is a huge fledgling town, but whose growth the war is interfering with”, Museveni decried.