RSS marks the seventh CPA Anniversary

JUBA, 9 January 2012 – South Sudanese across the Republic of South Sudan today are marking the seventh anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), an agreement signed in 2005 that ended Africa’s longest civil war between the former rebel group of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SLPM/A) and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of Khartoum in the Kenyan town of Naivasha. It’s estimated that about 2.5 million people died during the civil war with thousands forced to refugee camps across the globe.

The struggle that was headed by the founding leader late Dr. John Garang de Mabior who died in a plane crash on his way back to South Sudan from an official visit to Uganda barely five months after the signing of the CPA is one that is cherished by all South Sudanese from all walks of life as it bought to them peace that they had been fighting for even before the independence of the Sudan in 1956.


President Kiir votes in the landmark referendum last year.

South Sudan seceded from the rest of the Sudan in July last year after voting overwhelmingly for separation in a referendum exercise which was promised in the 2005 peace agreement. The people of Southern Sudan were given two options either to vote for unity of the Sudan or to have Africa’s largest country split into two.

The seven month old country that was completely devastated by the long civil war has seen tremendous change in development from the time the SPLM/A inherited it from the National Congress Party (NCP) with the guided leadership of H.E Salva Kiir Mayardit the President of the Republic of South Sudan. Roads, hospitals, schools, security and basic service delivery rate high on the score sheet of achievements of the new government.



South Sudanese celebrating independence.

The day that has only been declared a public holiday with very little activities across the country is perhaps seen as a day for families to rejoice together in their homes and to reflect what the achievement means for the future of the country.

From the streets of Juba goss.org spoke to many South Sudanese and what most of them said was not far from what one by the names Akoon Malual said: “We have been celebrating the 9th of January every year until the end of the interim period, much as the day will always remind us of the end of the struggle and the beginning of peace, what is even most important for us now is the 9th of July which was the declaration of independence to the Republic of South Sudan.”

Reported by Matata Safi



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