John Akoon
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. President Salva Kiir delivers his speech during the opening of the Nairobi peace process on Thursday, May 09, 2024, in Nairobi, Kenya. [Photo: PPU]
President Salva Kiir appealed to the South Sudanese living outside the country to come back and vote in the 2024 December polls.
The Presidential Press Unit (PPU) noted that President Kiir made the plea during his opening address during the opening of the Nairobi peace process in Kenya on Thursday.
“During his opening address at the peace process, dubbed the Tumaini Initiative, on Thursday, President Kiir appealed to South Sudanese to return home to help develop the nation and vote in the December general elections,” PPU noted.
Since the outbreak of 2013 conflicts in South Sudan, nearly 2.32 million South Sudanese reportedly fled to seek refuge in the neighbouring countries.
However, with the signing of the peace accord in 2018, slated to end in an election in December 2024, the fate of a considerable number of South Sudanese still living in the neighbouring countries has divided the opinions of the leaders.
Last month, a Member of the National Assembly under the SPLM-IO ticket Juol Nhomngek faulted his colleague, Akol Koordit, from SPLM, after the latter suggested that the country should head into election without the repatriation of refugees and national population census which are stipulated in the peace agreement.
Nhomngek argued that the presidential election cannot be conducted when the identity and the number of citizens are not known, stressing that some are still in the neighbouring countries.
“How can you say the president can be elected without the census, and in the census, you know the citizens of South Sudan are not known? If the citizens are not known in totality some are outside, how will you get the voters to be registered, how will you get them? Will you register Acholi, Kakwa of Uganda, or Sudanese from Sudan here?” Nhomngek posed, adding that there is a need for a population census to know the legible voters.
However, on Wednesday, the UN Refugee Agency reported that “at least 1.3 million South Sudanese refugees have returned home since the signing of the revitalized peace accord.”
According to the agency, it has verified that the return of 45, 429 South Sudanese was the rise of insecurity in country of asylum such as Sudan.
The agency further highlights “food insecurity, including the reduction of a food ration, and a lack of employment and livelihood opportunities key factors for the return of South Sudanese.”
Repatriation of refugees and the need to conduct a population census are still divisive issues, with the SPLM maintaining that they are tasks which can be accomplished after elections while the SPLM-IO holds a contrary opinion.
The South Sudanese refugees escaped into the neighbouring countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and DR Congo during civil wars.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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