By Kiden Stela Mandela Ndoromo
South Sudan became an independent nation on July 9, 2011. This following a referendum in January 2011 where people of South Sudan voted overwhelmingly for separation from the then Sudan. The declaration of independence marked the culmination of decades of struggle and a civil war, but since the independency, people in this country did not enjoy the peace they deserved from the long civil war from the Sudanese regime, following the greedy war of 2013 and 2016 Gun violence has never reduced in the country atleast every day there will cases of Gun attack either on civilians, solider and Cattle raiding.
Taking on report produced by One Citizen Network for Democracy, the gun violence resulted in 877 deaths, where 277 were civilians, 597 were soldiers, and 3 were foreign nationals (mainly businessmen ambushed along the road when transporting their goods) on a half a year 2025 really where is the country taking its direction?
This is reputable that most of these gun violence attacks were a result of cattle raiding, inter/intracommunal conflicts, criminal or gang-related activity, government counter-insurgency operations, suicides, accidents, armed confrontations, and ambushes along the roads in the country.
Nevertheless, there are also other fundamental factors, such as political instability and a lack of rule of law in the country. If this is a six-month study (from January to June 2025) conducted on Juba-based mainstream local media news content on gun violence attacks across the 10 states and the three administrative areas in South Sudan, how about the unreported on? Here the government should be answerable for all this establishments. Contempt efforts by partners and the government to reduce conflict in most parts of the country, cases of gun violence persist.
In the year 2024, this report was documented as 755 people killed as a result of gun violence in the country. But this semiannual statement shows a surge in the statistics of gun violence casualties recorded within six months of this year. Henceforth, there is a need for the government and partners to double efforts in curbing violence.
With the economic situation getting worse, and as a contributing factor to the violence, there is a need to address the economic crisis by improving the economy of the country.
Addressing gun violence in South Sudan requires more than just peace talks; it demands a multi-pronged approach by the government to ensure the stability of this country. This includes strengthening the rule of law, reforming the justice systems, accelerating peace agreement implementation, investing in economic opportunities that benefit youth, and modernising the national army as the law enforcement agency.
I call on the parties to the 2018 peace agreement to exert more effort in reducing violence across the country, recommends that the South Sudan government should carry out strategic Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration (DDR) programs across the country and stick to the peace agreement.
God Protect South Sudan
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