Africa’s 54th nation and the youngest in the world, South Sudan, was in ecstasy following it long-fought independence from Sudan in July 2011. South Sudanese thronged the streets, some waving the country’s new flag high as they sang victory songs – songs of hope for a peaceful and prosperous country ahead.
But their joy will last just 29 months as the country descended into a civil war in December 2013, interrupting the nation building process and leaving the social fabrics which were binding South Sudanese together in tatters.
Over 13 years after independence, the drawn-out civil war, which was a result of power struggle among the political elite, has brought about a dire humanitarian situation in addition to the over 400,000 people killed between 2013-2018 in the East African country. The quest for peace is now everyone’s desire.
Ghai Aketch, a South Sudanese African Union scholar studying for a Masters of Governance and Regional Integration at the Pan African University Institute of Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences (PAUGHSS), the AU’s premiere institution of higher learning in Cameroon, is one of those who are passionate about the peacebuilding process in the country.
The 32-year-old media and communications professional was among young scholars from over 20 African countries who participated in a strategic discussion focused on “Cultivating a Culture of Peace” across the continent. The exchange was held at the University of Yaounde II Soa, located on the outskirts of Cameroon’s capital Yaounde.
Hosted by PAUGHSS, in collaboration with Civic Watch; the implementing organisation of the #defyhatenow initiative in Cameroon, the two-day strategic discussion held on November 28-29. It aimed, amongst others, at encouraging young people to take action for peace in their communities and in governance. Also, the discussion was organised to stress advocacy for policies and programmes that support peacebuilding amongst communities.
Aketch plans to share this experience and ideas when he returns to South Sudan at the end of his studies. He says being passionate about what concerns his community and affects his people compels him to look for ways in which to imbibe the culture of peace in them.
“You want to have people united, work together, embrace each other, have tolerance. All that are prerequisites for a peaceful country. So, for me, I’m doing my best to be part of the peace building young people in South Sudan,” he told NewsWatch.
South Sudan in the next decade
The passionate peacebuilder is not just focused on his country, but also engaged at the regional level through a platform of young people keen on building peace in the East African Community.
“I am currently volunteering for the Youth Peace and Security Platform in the East African Community as the communications coordinator. So, that can be a breakthrough in my country at the national level to engage the policy makers to work collaboratively. Because peace building needs more efforts from different people,” Aketch explained.
In school, the young South Sudanese scholar interacts with fellows from the region including Fawzi Ahmed Abdullah Slom, his course mate from Sudan, with whom he was sharing pleasantries at the time NewsWatch met them.
With 75 percent of South Sudan’s population comprising youth, Aketch says the young people are a promising asset in the peacebuilding process and thus need to partner with the people in governance, in not only South Sudan but everywhere else.
“They need more partnership because youth have perspectives that might really help or transform the conflict,” the young AU scholar said.
Aketch is already in the system in building peace in South Sudan and working with other stakeholders and he is hopeful that in the next decade, the youngest nation in the world will be a country that is defined in terms of what it needs to achieve.
“Right now, we are working towards building that peace together through the revitalized agreement on conflict resolution in South Sudan, which has brought so many parties to the conflict in 2013 to realize that they are surely for the people of South Sudan and not political interests,” Aketch explained.
“So, in the next 10 years, this peace agreement will take shape and will be binding, and people will not talk of going back to war or fighting each other,” he said.
