Residents in South Sudan’s Lasu Payam in Yei River County of Central Equatoria State have agreed to promote peace and reconciliation activities in the area to enhance good civil-military relations and peaceful co-existence in the community.

Lasu Payam is one of the areas bordering the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which experienced massive displacements and continuous human rights abuses since the outbreak of the conflict in 2016.

Last week, several community leaders, youth, women, elders, chiefs, local government officials, and representatives of the government military forces held a two-day peace dialogue organized by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) civil affairs department aimed at improving civil-military relations in the area.

Alex Kenyi, the Lasu Payam paramount chief, told Radio Tamazuj that they openly discussed major challenges affecting the civil-military relations in the locality.

“We have discussed and agreed that all civilian places such as schools, health centers, markets or administrative offices occupied by the soldiers should be vacated and we also agreed that humanitarian agencies delivering services to the displaced civilians should not be prevented from reaching to the communities and we equally discussed and agreed on the free movement of civilians on the roads and removal of all checkpoints on the roads because we want to promote peaceful co-existence,” he said.

Kenyi said they also agreed to promote reconciliation activities through community meetings, sports, and prayer services at the local Boma and Payam level.

Banja Malish, a resident of Logo village thanked UNMISS and the local government for bringing the civilians and the military for peace and reconciliation dialogue.

“The soldiers should know their role in protecting the civilians and we also demand the civilians to respect and peacefully co-exist with the soldiers and we want the soldiers not to move with their guns within the civilian population and we demand free movement of civilians on the road because we want peace and we are tired of this war,” Malish said.  

The head of UNMISS in Yei, James Mugo, said his organization is ready to continue supporting local peace initiatives to boost reconciliation mechanisms at the community level.

“The peace dialogue came up with local peace committee structures at the local level to solve conflicts which may arise at the local level and we shall continue to replicate the same in the southern parts of Central Equatoria region,” Mugo said. 

Mugo added that the dialogue is also meant to promote trust and confidence-building between civilians and the uniformed forces.