JUBA, July 9 (Xinhua) -- As South Sudan marked its 15th independence anniversary on Thursday, many citizens said their greatest hope was not celebration, but lasting peace through dialogue and a successful democratic transition.
For 35-year-old media practitioner Paulino Angok Garang, who lives in Aweil in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, dialogue remains the country's best chance to achieve lasting stability after years of conflict.
"We are expecting peace to prevail in our country, and we ask all the political parties, including President Salva Kiir, to engage in dialogue to pave the way for elections because the people want unity among their leaders," he told Xinhua.
Angok said many South Sudanese are placing their hopes on the planned elections as a way to resolve the political crises that have gripped the world's youngest nation since conflict erupted in December 2013.
Jimmy Lomide, a 41-year-old construction worker in Juba, the capital, said the transitional unity government should first restore security and revive the struggling economy before proceeding with elections scheduled for this December.
"We cannot say we are at peace when people living hundreds of kilometers away from the capital are still being killed. There is an urgent need for a cessation of hostilities between the government and the armed opposition groups," he said.
Lomide added that the deepening economic crisis has left many South Sudanese struggling to survive, noting that civil servants have gone without salaries for the past 10 months.
"There is a need for elections, but conditions must improve before they can take place. Some of the states are still mired in insecurity. There are still many armed groups operating across the country, and even some government soldiers are tempted to engage in criminal activity due to a lack of pay," Lomide said.
Boboya James Edimond, executive director of the Institute of Social Policy and Research, said the country is marking its independence anniversary amid a severe hunger crisis.
He attributed the emergency to a mix of escalating local conflicts, climate shocks, and a severely underfunded humanitarian aid budget.
"When South Sudan gained independence in 2011, the poverty level was 48 percent, but today it has risen to 92 percent due to a combination of factors, including conflict and climate shocks," Boboya said.
Echoing the call for dialogue, Edmund Yakani, executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, said political engagement remains the only realistic path to ending more than a decade of instability, despite progress in infrastructure development.
"South Sudan's political class needs to embrace dialogue as a means of resolving political differences. Therefore, I am appealing to every politically dissatisfied South Sudanese not to take up arms as a means of expressing political grievances," he said.
The calls from citizens and civil society come as South Sudan continues efforts to implement the 2018 revitalized peace agreement and prepare for its long-delayed democratic transition.
George Aggrey Owinow, chairperson of the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), the body overseeing the peace agreement, said the country has made notable progress in advancing peace and rebuilding national institutions.
"RJMEC calls upon all the parties to the revitalized peace agreement to reaffirm their commitment to the full, faithful, and timely implementation of the agreement. Dialogue, compromise, and political will remain indispensable in overcoming the remaining challenges and creating the conditions necessary for a peaceful democratic transition," Owinow said in a statement on Wednesday.
