Lawyers call for cessation of hostilities in S.Sudan

By Cecilia Okoth

The East Africa Law Society has called on the warring parties in the on going conflict in the Republic of South Sudan to exercise restraint, cease hostilities and commit to a peaceful resolution.

James Aggrey Mwamu, the society’s president in a press statement said that a political conflict can only be best solved through dialogue.

“We laud the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) for initiating the peace talks in Addis Ababa aimed at bringing the belligerents to negotiate,” Mwamu said in the statement.

“However it is incumbent on the Government of South Sudan to put in place the necessary national political and institutional frameworks reflective of the rich ethnic and political fabric that South Sudan is,” He added.

South Sudan by far faces its greatest challenge since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 and its attainment of independence in July 2011.

Mwamu also cautioned against the military involvement of Uganda’s military reportedly in support of the Government of President Salva Kiir’s troops, indicating that that the military adventurism echoes a profound misunderstanding of the nature of the conflict, or the long term solutions to it.

He condemned the attacks, murder and pillage that has been committed thus far and called on all parties to ensure that accountability is exacted from all those persons or institutions responsible.

The East African Law Society is the umbrella regional Bar Association of the legal profession in East Africa. It brings together the six national Law Societies of Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Uganda as well as respective individual membership.