Governor Emmanuel Adil amidst crowd during July 9TH Independence celebrations in Yei town/ courtesy photo

The Central Equatoria governor has called on the Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Yei to engage the holdout groups to denounce violence in the area.

Governor Emmanuel Adil and Bishop Alex Lodiong met in the national capital, Juba at the weekend.

The two leaders discussed means to restore peace and stability in the area as well as improve service delivery to the civilian population.

According to the governor’s press secretary, Derick Derickson,”Emmanuel Adil emphasized on the need for the church leaders particularly the Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Yei to use his influence to call on the hold out group to denounce violence and join the wagon of peace.”

For his part, Bishop Alex Lodiong said, insecurity remains the biggest challenge in the Yei River and the situation requires a lot of peace and development efforts.

The latter is what the bishop believes will attract those who took refuge to neighboring Uganda and DR Congo to return home and rebuild their lives.

“So many people are not there, 75 percent of the people are not there, they are in Uganda, others are in DR. Congo and others displaced within the bushes”,

The religious leader went on to say ” insecurity is still strong and many of our people still feel insecure whether in the towns or in the bushes.”

However, the clergy said one of his missions in the near future is to visit the grassroots as well as the disgruntled armed group.

Talks between the government and the National Salvation Front stalled since June last year after President Kiir suspended the Rome peace process.

This followed the killing of two catholic nuns along the Juba-Nimule highway- an incident the government and NAS traded counter accusations