CEPO Director Edmund Yakani | Photo: Awan Moses/Eye Radio.

Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) Executive Director Edmund Yakani has described South Sudan’s 13 years since independence as a period dominated by political instability, conflict and governance challenges, calling for a citizen-led constitutional dialogue to help address the country’s crises.

Speaking in a message marking South Sudan’s 15th Independence Anniversary, Yakani said the country had experienced only a limited period of peace since gaining independence.

“Out of the 15 years of our independence, we only enjoyed two years of peace and stability,” Yakani said.

“The rest of the 13 years are described by political stalemate, political instability, citizens paying a very expensive price with their lives and properties.”

Yakani also criticised corruption, misuse of public resources and violations of the rule of law, saying some public officials had abused their positions without facing accountability.

“We have seen some public officials abusing public office authority for their personal gains — corruption, misuse of public funds, abuse of the rule of law, and taking the law into their hands,” he said.

The civil society leader said repeated efforts, including peace agreements, mediation processes and national dialogue initiatives, had failed to move the country from political deadlock to sustainable peace.

“We couldn’t have a transition from political stalemate and instability to stability and to peace,” Yakani said.

As a way forward, Yakani announced the launch of a Citizen Constitutional Dialogue, which he said would provide a platform for South Sudanese from different sectors to discuss the country’s constitutional future.

“The Citizen Constitutional Dialogue is intended to be a platform that will bring South Sudanese from their different setups and sectors together to have a genuine and honest conversation on constitutional matters,” he said.

Yakani argued that the root causes of South Sudan’s political instability had not been adequately addressed through constitutional arrangements and urged citizens to take part in shaping the country’s governance system.

“We believe that engaging as citizens in constitutional dialogue will generate room for us to repair the broken social fabric, look into the ongoing political stalemate from a constitutional governance point of view, and reconcile in our different sectors of society,” he said.

He said the initiative would focus on reconciliation, accountability and rebuilding trust among citizens.

“The Citizen Constitutional Dialogue will be a citizen-centred platform that will embrace reconciliation, repairing of broken social fabric, demanding political accountability, and holding people who assume public offices accountable for meeting the best interests of South Sudanese citizens,” Yakani said.