By Yiep Joseph<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
President Salva Kiir has ordered the release of 22 inmates charged with minor crimes as a sign of forgiveness.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n In his New Year\u2019s address to the nation, Kiir urged South Sudanese to forgive one another and embrace peace.<\/p>\n He said the decision to release inmates symbolizes the importance of forgiveness and the pursuit of peace in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a gesture of forgiveness, I hereby order the release of 22 inmates charged with petty crimes, effective January 1st, 2025,\u201d Kiir ordered.<\/p>\n The order, however, did not specify which categories of prisoners would be released or explain why only 22 individuals were chosen, especially considering that many people across the country are imprisoned for minor offences, such as pickpocketing and unpaid loans, largely due to economic hardship.<\/p>\n President Kiir urged South Sudanese to remain hopeful for the future in 2025 and to let go of the losses experienced in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cTo all our brothers and sisters who suffered losses in 2024, let the year 2025 be a year of recovery, restitution, and restoration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He called on the citizens to pray for the new year 2025 in order for more blessings to be realized. Kiir reiterated the government’s commitment to ensuring that complete peace is attained as well as service delivery.<\/p>\n As the country looks ahead to 2025, Kiir expressed his hope for a year of peace, unity, and compromise.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is my prayer and hope that 2025 will be a year where the land of great abundance will uphold us united in peace and harmony. A year where we will make great compromises, choose leadership over politics, and our children will sing songs of freedom with joy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On separate occasions, Northerner Bhar el Ghazal governor, \ud835\udc12\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc26\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc27 \ud835\udc0e\ud835\udc1b\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2b \ud835\udc0c\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc30\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc2d, ordered the release of 79 inmates that included juveniles, women, and elderly persons who had been in prison due to unimportant crimes.<\/p>\n The governor made the order on Christmas Eve and directed the beneficiaries to celebrate the new year with their families and be change agents in society.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore we conclude this year, I direct the prison service and other relevant authorities to release 79 prisoners in detention for committing petty crimes, including juveniles, women, and the elderly,\u201d the governor ordered.<\/p>\n In 2023, twenty inmates serving prison sentences across South Sudan for committing petty crimes were pardoned by the President.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Yiep Joseph President Salva Kiir has ordered the release of 22 inmates charged with minor crimes as a sign of forgiveness. In his New Year\u2019s address to the nation, Kiir urged South Sudanese to forgive one another and embrace peace. He said the decision to release inmates symbolizes[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":32168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32167","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\/2025\/01\/President-Salva-Kiir-during-national-address-for-the-new-year-2025.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32167","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=32167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32170,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32167\/revisions\/32170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cLet us all pray that the year 2025 brings with it a blessing for all,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n