Executive chiefs in South Sudan wearing red sash of office; Riftvalley

An official at the South Sudan Council of Churches has suggested traditional approach to resolve the conflict.

Since 2014, the regional mediation body – IGAD – has been exploring international conflict resolution methods to end the 5-year conflict.

While the government on the other hand is using national dialogue, a strategy initiated by the president in 2016 to reconcile communities at grassroots.

However, Gladys Mananyu – an official of the Peace Desk with the South Sudan Council of Churches – says leaders should use the traditional ways of resolving conflicts.

“I will be very happy if we turn back to our traditions ways of handling problems, especially engaging our leaders at local levels so that they can address and own the process,” she said.

“And not that the process start somewhere and then it’s being pushed to them.”

Every ethnic group in the country has different ways of resolving conflicts. Some have been incorporated in the customary laws used in traditional courts.

Experts have suggested good practices in traditional conflict resolution through codification of customary law and linking traditional systems with modern system of local governance.