South Sudan women urge political leaders to implement peace deal

South Sudan’s women have launched a new campaign aimed at pressuring the country’s political leaders to implement the September 2018 peace accord.

Women from different backgrounds will be traversing the east African nation to advocate for the formation of the transitional unity government that was recently delayed by 100 days.

After failing to form the transitional government in May, signatories to the pact agreed to delay it until Nov. 12, but they again pushed it to February 2020 over unresolved security issues such as reunification of the rival armed groups and formation of a joint protection force.

Margret Barsaba, head of the South Sudan Women of Faith Network, said the group would be conducting public rallies across the country to call for peaceful resolution of the pending issues still holding back the fragile peace deal.

“Every month, we are going to come together to send a message to our president, Salva Kiir, and other leaders to work hard and bring peace to the country,” Barsaba said. “We want them to form the government without delays, and we are sure that within these 100 days, something good is going to come out.”

Hundreds of women gathered in the capital, Juba, over the weekend, where they used dramas, songs and poems to depict the suffering they have endured in past years of civil war in their homeland.

“We want this peace to be a real one in order to end the suffering in our country. We as women want to get united and build our country together,” said Leila Babala, a grassroots campaigner.

South Sudan descended into conflict in December 2013. Tens of thousands have since been killed and millions others displaced internally and externally.

A peace deal signed in 2015 collapsed after the outbreak of renewed violence in July 2016. As part of the latest peace deal, opposition leader Riek Machar is expected to be reinstated as a first vice president in the yet to be formed unity government. Enditem