Suzanne Jambo, the founder of South Sudan Towards Peace and Democracy (STEPS) party says as a presidential aspirant she will continue to advocate for peace and justice in South Sudan.
The prominent women and human rights activist turned politician was last month awarded The Mandela Ubuntu Prize for her active advocacy against how the current leaders are running the country.
“She is renowned for her active participation in peace negotiation and her exemplary actions in pooling NGO’s resources to defend women and children’s rights, promote inclusive security, participatory governance, conflicts prevention, fair and lasting peace in South Sudan,” partly read a statement from the Mandela Institute.
Jambo, also a former SPLM secretary for external relations told Radio Tamazuj that the prize by the Paris-based Mandela Institute only serves to encourage her to continue with her activism.
“The Ubuntu in Zulu and Xhosa means a selfless person, so they have gone through my background and more than 300 diplomats, civil society activists, human rights activist from around the world recommended me to the Mandela Institute. Then a jury of 30 people went through my file and out of 6,000 names, we remained 7 people awarded different prizes,” she explained.
Jambo said despite the humongous challenges she faces including being a woman, she is determined to restore dignity and peace for all the 64 tribes of South Sudan through step by step building of peace, love, unity, and nationalism.
She also called on all leaders to unite for the sake of the people of South Sudanese who are enduring enormous suffering and deaths saying it is enough and south Sudanese need peace ‘today not tomorrow’.