By Bosco Bush<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In pursuit of lasting peace and stability across the country, the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) has emphasized the need for concerted efforts to achieve sustainable peace without delay.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The church recognizes that in 2024, the country faced significant challenges, including economic hardships, hunger, displacement, insecurity, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness among its citizens. These difficult circumstances result from both manmade issues and natural disasters.<\/p>\n In their Christmas message, SSCC urges all South Sudanese to continue praying for lasting and sustainable peace in South Sudan.<\/p>\n The council also encouraged the Government, through the love of God, to address outstanding issues in the 2018 revitalized peace agreement, and make it a gift to the people in 2025. \u201cWe hope for the return of our brothers and sisters from internally displaced camps to their homes, for unity among South Sudanese both within and outside the country, and for economic recovery that supports the most vulnerable,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n Above all, the council emphasized the complete silencing of guns across the nation, essential for genuine peace to prevail.<\/p>\n The 2018 revitalized peace agreement that\u2019s supposed to be implemented within 36 months ending the transitional period with holding of general elections, has faced backdrops with several extensions surpassing its stipulated timeline.<\/p>\n Although relatively calm has returned to the country after signing and slow-pace implementation of the 2018 revitalized peace agreement, persistent challenges continue across the country including hunger, economic decline, communal violence, killings, armed insurgency, absence of rule of law, and continued displacement in many parts of the country.<\/p>\n Civil servants remain unpaid for a haptic number of months, and many diplomatic missions have either closed or are on the verge of closing due to lack of financial support for the missions.<\/p>\n The Church noted with concern the time around for leaders to engage in meaningful dialogue to bring peace and stability, underscoring the need to put aside individual interest for the common good of the suffering population. Adding that, \u201cit\u2019s essential to engage in truthfulness, even if it requires sacrificing individual interests for the common good of those in displaced camps, the suffering, and the hungry across the nation \u2013 including civil servants who have gone for months without salaries.\u201d<\/p>\n As we approach the end of 2024, the Church said, let the candle of hope shine brightly amidst the darkness in South Sudan, signalling promise and comfort during these trying moments.<\/p>\n \u201cMay this year deepen our faith, bless us with hope, and fill us with the love of Christ this Christmas and always,\u201d added the message.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Bosco Bush In pursuit of lasting peace and stability across the country, the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) has emphasized the need for concerted efforts to achieve sustainable peace without delay. The church recognizes that in 2024, the country faced significant challenges, including economic hardships, hunger, displacement,[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Members-of-South-Sudan-Council-of-Churches-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31825"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31828,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31825\/revisions\/31828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cAs a Church, we look forward to a new year filled with peace, healing, forgiveness, justice and reconciliation,\u201d partially read the statement.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe time has come to bring peace to our people without delay,\u201d read the message.<\/p>\n