Salva Kiir's appointed administration for the proposed Eastern Bieh state in South Sudan's Upper Nile will send an advance team to Akobo to survey local perceptions of the peace agreement.

Akobo is the capital of the proposed Eastern Bieh, which is inhabitated mostly by the Lou Nuer tribe and a minority from Anyuak tribe. Eastern Bieh has been controlled by forces opposing Salva Kiir's government since the beginning of the war.

The appointed deputy governor Timothy Taban Juch said the state governor with his staff will go to Akobo soon after the advance team completes its visit. Most of Kiir's appointed governors of opposition areas have remained in Juba or other government-controlled areas rather than returning to the areas they are meant to administer.

Taban acknowledged the local people may not receive the government officials from Juba with loving hearts after so much suffering has been inflicted on them by their politicians.

He said they need to preach peace to the local communities now that there is a unity government in South Sudan.

Taban said the local people may have a different understanding of the peace agreement and the new government which is led by Kiir as president and opposition leader Riek Machar as first vice president.

“The committee is going to inform the people that the peace agreement has already been signed, 28 states have been established, and by that there is no reason why people should stay here in Juba,” said Taban, referring to people living in the UN's internally displaced persons camp in the city, where some 28,000 people take shelter.

“The IO are the people controlling that area, they have to be informed that everything has been agreed to the agreement,” he said.