Women rights activists in Yei River County of Central Equatoria state are appealing to the United Kingdom government to pressure the South Sudan government and the holdout National Salvation Front (NAS) to respect the cessation of hostilities agreement and end the suffering of Yei residents.
The appeals were made during a meeting of the UK special representative to South Sudan and Sudan Robert Fairweather with representatives of the local government, civil society organizations, religious leaders, and the army leadership in Yei early this week.
Briefing the top UK diplomat, women rights defender Hawa Adams said despite the signed peace agreement and the Cessation of Hostilities (COH) agreement, residents continue to suffer gruesome human rights abuses committed by armed men on both sides to the conflict.
She accused both the government and NAS of violating the COH agreement and urged the UK government to hold the parties accountable.
“On both sides, there is no respect for the ceasefire. Through your government, we are demanding that you take our message to the president that road ambushes are becoming too rampant in Yei. Also, talk to the people who have not signed the peace agreement that we are crying for peace," she added.
Mary Gboka another women rights activist further emphasized that Yei residents suffer in the hands of both the government and rebel forces accusing them of attacks, beatings, and arbitrary arrests of citizens.
For his part, Robert Fairweather promised to present the concerns raised by the people of Yei to the leaders of the peace agreement including the NAS leader Thomas Cirilo.
“We will continue to reach out to all the various groups and press them to respect the peace agreement and I know that there has been concerns and attacks by NAS and I will speak to Thomas Cirilo and pushing to ensure that forces are loyal to him respect the peace agreement,” he assured.
A week ago, two people were shot dead and five others wounded in a road ambush at Sanja-Siri village about three miles west of Yei town.