No more bloodshed to senseless war
The ordinary people are tired of war, and they do not want to see this country return to anarchy again. Several people lost their property and loved ones during the 21-year liberation struggle, not to mention the clashes in December 2013. They do not want to have the same experience.
A report published by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, financed by the State Department in 2018, revealed that an estimated 383,000 people had died as a result of the five years of fighting in the world’s youngest country.
The report said that about half of the dead were killed in clashes that spread across the country, while the other half died from diseases, hunger, and other causes exacerbated by the conflict. Had the war taken five years, the death toll would have been so huge if it had not stopped in 2018.
While the 2.5 million lives lost during the 21-year conflict were “justifiable” because they were not lost in vain. But the 383,000 lives lost during the recent war were unwarranted because the country did not expect to lose any single life in a senseless war after independence.
Despite the loss of several lives, some politicians have continued to make war as part of their political survival. They continued to wage senseless war at the cost of the innocent blood of young people in the country. You have to wonder if those politicians would prefer war to peace if they had any investments in the country or families living there. The tendency of some politicians to engage in conflict is a clear sign that they do not have anything valuable in the country.
Most of the country’s leaders are keeping their families and assets outside South Sudan, in countries they believe are more peaceful than their country. Unfortunately, they are the very people who continue to destabilise the country and reap profits from the suffering of innocent people.
It is time to give peace a chance. The ordinary citizens who have nowhere to go are tired of the war, and want peace to rebuild their lives. These people have suffered for quite a long time and have been refugees in their lives more than twice. They now want to live a peacefully in their own country.
Therefore, our politicians should consider the importance of having peace in the country. They should contain their appetite for benefits they expect in the form of appointments to quench their thirst for destabilization. The tactics of rebelling against the government with the ambition of being rewarded with positions or paid money in exchange for peace need to stop. The youth are not ready to shed more blood for man’s ambition this time, and enough for the 383, 000 lives lost in the last five years of war.
