Vice President Rebecca Nyandeng addressing Young Entrepreneurs in Juba - CREDIT | Stephen Chot/Eye Radio | December 1, 2021

The Vice President for Gender and Youth Cluster on Friday criticized “elderly politicians” over youth unemployment claiming that public offices have been dominated by aged-politicians, depriving young people of job opportunities.

Rebecca Nyadeng made the remarks at the weekend ahead of the International Women Day due tomorrow.

According to her, the public offices have mostly been occupied by elderly people and politicians.

And the youth, she said, who are supposed to build the nation have been sidelined.

Nyandeng has also accused the leaders of using young people to fight for their selfish interests–something she said is fueling the conflict in the country.

“I have to be very clear about this. You go to the offices, it is elderly people with gray hair who are behind the tables and the young people are just on the street,” VP Nyandeng said.

“We politicians, we are very selfish, we go and pick them when you are angry and then you go and use them, but if we engage the youth, this conflict will not be there, so this is what we want to fight.”

According to Nyandeng, over 70 percent of the country’s population are youth, saying the majority of them have been traumatized due to unemployment.

She said her office is now considering launching a program for young people including trauma healing and counselling.

“Youth are also traumatized, because they don’t see hope, they don’t see anything, you find somebody without hope, can be traumatized,” VP Nyandeng said.

“We are fighting the war of trauma also, within the projects that we are going to do, trauma counseling, trauma healing will be part and parcel of what we will be doing.

“I told our partners, we should be the one to select our beneficiaries, not them, it will be selected by us and them together. And then this time we want regional representation in anything being done.”