South Sudan marks army day peacefully despite threats of protests

South Sudan marked army day smoothly on Thursday, with government saying that there were no signs of street protests in the day.

“There are no protesters on the (Juba) streets and the soldiers are deployed to keep order,” Ateny Wek Ateny, President Salva Kiir’s spokesman, told Xinhua in Juba.

Armed soldiers were seen early Thursday patrolling streets, manning check points across roads leading to the central district of Juba as business premises remained shut with several people preferring to keep within the confines of their homes.

Members of the Red Card Movement in recent past intensified their social media campaign urging South Sudanese to participate in overthrowing the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) citing lack of good governance and corruption.

The government had earlier on warned South Sudanese youth not to involve themselves in protests being planned in Juba and neighboring countries by the Red Card Movement.

President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed the revitalized peace deal in September 2018 mediated by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Ethiopia to end five years of conflict that broke out in December 2013.

The 2015 peace agreement collapsed after outbreak of renewed fighting in Juba in July 2016, which forced Machar to flee into exile.

The parties recently agreed to extend the pre-transitional period for another six months before forming the much-awaited transitional unity government that should have been up and running by May 12. Enditem