S. Sudan :President Kiir calls for peace during festive season

By Deng Machol

Juba - South Sudan President Salva Kiir has called for all South Sudanese to unite and work for peace for the country to solve its immensely challenges.

In his written Christmas message shared by the Office of the President on Friday; president kiir encouraged South Sudanese to pray for God’s guidance and blessing as the country strives to foster deeper understanding to resolve the conflict in the East African's nation.

"As we welcome the Lord in our hearts, I encourage you to remember the challenges we have faced as a country this year and pray that the Lord's spirit will continue to nurture and strengthen our unity to stand together as a people despite the these difficulties," said president Kiir. We also need a collectively pray for God's guidance and blessings as we strive to Foster deeper understanding in our work to resolve conflict in our country once and for all."

South Sudan, which gained her independence from Sudan in 2011, is just emerging from the five - year civil conflict that has displaced about four million population internally and externally into neighboring countries, before it has ruined the country's economy.

This year, floods and desert locusts have further worsened living conditions for millions of South Sudanese.

This has also fueled up by Inter-communal violence in some states, killed hundreds of locals.

Of recently, the Juba government and three UN agencies said up to 6.5 million South Sudanese faced severe acute food insecurity in the last two months.

But this number is expected to increase to 7.24 million between April and July 2021.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the country has massive development needs, from building basic infrastructure to developing education and health services, to building institutions.

These challenges, the IMF says, are difficult to solve for a country that has very limited access to affordable financing.

President Kiir further encouraged South Sudanese to remember the challenges the country has faced this year and urged them to pray for unity.

More so, Kiir further reminded the country of threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic that continues to destabilize the entire world.