A youth leader in South Sudan’s Yei River State has decried high rates of nepotism and sexual exploitation saying it leads to high unemployment rates among young competent job seekers in the state.
Satimon Ale Samuel, the interim chairperson of Yei River State Youth Union told Radio Tamazuj that many Non-Governmental Organizations operating in Yei employ people based on their tribes.
“If you look at the NGOs, the project managers or directors of the organizations are employing family relatives and employees from the same tribe. These are some of the challenges facing youth employment and we demand these issues to be stopped in the area,” he said.
Ale noted that young women have reported cases of sexual exploitation in exchange for employment in both national and international organizations.
“We have registered some cases in which some female job seekers are being sexually abused by some senior staff in some local and organizations for job employment. These are bad practices and we demand the law to take its course here,” he added.
The program manager for the Institute for Civil Society, a national organization in Yei, Paul Ohisa, added that female employees in many organizations have reported cases of sexual exploitation.
“The issue of sexual exploitation is becoming so rampant that we are not happy with because it tarnishes the image of some individuals and we stand against it totally,” Ohisa said.
He said civil society organizations should promote human dignity and offer equal employment opportunities regardless of tribe, color or gender.