South Sudan’s First Vice President Riek Machar on Thursday reiterated that political and prisoners of war should be released from jail in order to bring stability and peace to South Sudan and in compliance with the peace agreement.

Machar made the remarks at the Parliament Affairs Ministry during an induction workshop for the ministers of the Transitional Government of National Unity. He said that he is aware that there are still prisoners of war in government detention centers.

“There are serious issues in the agreement that JMEC may not resolve or the CTSAMM may not resolve it. It will be the cabinet that will resolve it and if we all work together, we will definitely resolve all these issues,” he said.

“If you have peace agreement and now form a transitional government of national unity, you cannot keep your citizens as prisoners of war. These are the immediate things that need to be done with the formation of transitional government,” Machar said.

Machar further said that if there are forces in cantonment areas, there should be a need to find a way of funding them by giving them training and orienting them into peace.

He also said the government must determine the future of internally displaced persons. “They can’t remain in UN POCs when we have formed the transitional government. We must find a way to address them.”