SSP300 million allocated for peace inadequate, says parliamentary committee

The Standing Specialised Committee on Peace and Reconciliation has raised concern about the budget allocated to its docket.

John Jok Chol, a member of parliament who also sits in the committee for Peace Reconciliation Committee at the national legislative assembly compared the budget to a drop of water in an ocean.

 “We asked him (the minister) about this year’s budget as the SSP325 million is like a drop in the ocean because that money is [too] little to cater for peace for entire South Sudan,” he said.

Chol stressed that making peace involves a lot of activities such as training of peacemakers, visiting counties that have been in the war situation  

“For us, that money is very little but we will try our level best to see where we can get some other amount of money to increase for the peace appeal,” he said

Chol told The City Review on a phone interview on Wednesday that they had summoned the minister of peace to explain the work plan of the ministry for the entire country in regards to peace.

He noted that the ministry itself was also lacking funds to conduct missions across the country.

 “We want the peace to be inclusive and whenever there is a misunderstanding then the peacemakers will go and find out so that there is peace in the country and stability,” Chol stressed.

He emphasised that the peace committee in the parliament was capable of reconciling communities that are fighting among them.

“We can even visit cantonment areas to spread peace messages to the unified forces who have been in the training centres for a long time due to lack of funding,”  Chol stated.