At an outreach event in the Pari community, many women made the most of a rare opportunity to ask tough questions about the political future of South Sudan. Photos: Isaac Billy/UNMISS
CENTRAL EQUATORIA – Living near the capital Juba does not necessarily mean having sufficient access to essential information about what is going on, socially and politically, in South Sudan.
Just ask the Pari community, consisting of internally displaced persons having settled on the outskirts of Juba, in and around the premises of the Don Bosco Camp for Internally Displaced Persons.
Here, many are unaware of their country’s struggle to put together its all-important permanent constitution or what is happening with the implementation of the rest of the revitalized peace agreement signed in 2018.
In fact, some have not yet been reached by perhaps the most significant South Sudanese news in recent times: the decision to postpone the country’s first post-independence elections by another two years, meaning that members of the Pari community will only get to cast their votes in December 2026.
Among the Pari men and women who are aware of this game-changer are skeptical.
"What guarantees do we have that two more years of this transitional government will succeed when six years of it have already failed us?" asked Augustine Agatha, a local teacher.
She and others used a good and rare opportunity to ask hard but vital questions, because on this day, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission visited the community to provide its residents with the best answers available.
And the grassroots leaders, youth, women’s representatives and others in attendance wanted to know as much as possible. Not only about elections and their funding, but also about transitional justice, the unification of South Sudan’s armed forces, the fate of internally displaced persons and other burning issues.
Siliwa Ato Akech from faraway has called the Don Bosco Camp for Internally Displaced Persons home for 13 years but doubts that she should be content with what life and South Sudan have given her.
"They ask us to return to our homes, while those in the political elite send their children abroad. How can they say we have secure and safe spaces in this country when they are sending their own families away?"
Her particular and rhetorical question may not have received a definite answer, but Chris Gitari Ndung’u, a Senior Transitional Justice Advisor representing the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, and Garang Yach James Akot, a Political Affairs Officer serving with UNMISS, did their best, both to clarify a variety of complex issues and to offer advice.
"Hold your leaders accountable," urged Mr. Ndung’u. "There has been some progress, yes, but significant underperformance remains when it comes to the implementation of various chapters of the peace agreement."
Mr. Akot, on the other hand, stressed the importance of the Pari people actively participating in the constitution-making process.
"It is a document that will shape the kind of elections we have and the structure of your government, and you will want to have your say in that," he explained.
The session with the people of Pari was the first in a series of planned grassroots events aiming at expanding the civic and political space in South Sudan, thus encouraging deeper community engagement in issues that shape people’s future.
"Our mission is to ensure that no information vacuums exist. We share facts and knowledge; we answer questions and clear up misunderstandings. We want to be a bridge, connecting communities like Pari with the people who drive the country’s transition,” said Reuben Inaju, Head of the peacekeeping mission’s Community Outreach Unit, as he addressed the crowd.
"You can be so near (the politics), yet so far away from it," said Okedy Eward Liabaala, Chief Clerk of the Pari community, capturing both its palpable frustration and the need to reach out to people otherwise left on the margins of development.