President Salva Kiir delivering his 2021 New Year's message on Thursday, December 31, 2020 at the State House, Juba. -credit | Office of the President

President Salva Kiir has expressed his desire to move the country away from all forms of violence and towards development in the year 2021.

The President asked South Sudanese to”silence the guns” in the forthcoming year.

Kiir also urges leaders and the public to focus on directing resources to national development priorities such as the provision of services.

In his New Year’s Eve message, Kiir called for unity and support for the revitalized peace agreement.

“The revitalized peace agreement is the framework for returning our country to permanent stability, and we have no choice other than to implement it faithfully,” he asserted.

But observers say the security and humanitarian conditions in South Sudan remain fragile even after the formation of the unity government in February this year.

Armed conflicts have persisted particularly in areas of Central Equatoria State between holdout armed groups and the SSPDF and the SPLA-IO.

Efforts to reform the security sector have been riddled with logistic and financial constraints with the parties yet to graduate the unified force.

They are yet to establish the full transitional government at the national and local levels.

In December, the UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan said the political momentum in South Sudan has eroded after President Salva Kiir locked the opposition out of the government’s decision-making process.

In addition, the panel observed that amid the disputes within the peace presidency and inaction in the implementation of the peace deal, the chains of command of armed groups have fragmented, and some units have prepared to return to conflict.

But President Salva Kiir has occasionally maintained that the country will not go back to war despite the slow implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

“There are others who think that we may go back tomorrow to war, something that I always so no,” President Kiir told a delegation of eminent personalities of church leaders from All African Conference of Churches and World Council of Churches in November.

“I want to assure you that we are not going back to war.”