Lawmakers in South Sudan’s Yei River State have resumed house business after a four-month recess in which the legislators visited their various constituencies in the 13 counties of the state.

This is the third session and is being held under the theme “towards sustainable peace, reconciliation and unity for development in Yei River State”.

Addressing the opening of the assembly, the transitional speaker Naphtali Hassan Gale said their deliberations will focus on presentation and formulation of policies and resolutions based on their findings from the communities.

 “The first thing we need to work towards is the protection of lives and properties of our people. We should guarantee access to movement without hindrance and implementation of laws to punish people who violate human rights,” he added.

Hassan called on the executive branch of the state to prioritize planning and budgeting to achieve the purpose of progressive development.

“The government should operate on policies, plans and budgets because there is no government that functions without these principles. The government should direct the NGOs to present their plans and budgets and the NGOs should not be telling the government what to do but the government should tell NGOs what to do so as to collectively meet the needs of the people at the grass roots,” he said.