President Kiir with a delegation of Church leaders and eminent personalities from the All African Conference of Churches and World Council of Churches on Friday, Nov 20, 2020/Office of the President

President Salva Kiir has said South Sudan will not return to war despite the slow implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

“There are others who think that we may go back tomorrow to war, something that I always so no,” President Kiir told a delegation of eminent personalities of church leaders from All African Conference of Churches and World Council of Churches on Friday.

“I want to assure you that we are not going back to war.”

The clerics had called on the president to complete the formation of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity.

Since July when nine state governors were appointed, the governor for Upper Nile is yet to be named.

The national legislature and other state government structures have also not been established.

Last week, the main opposition party — SPLM-IO said it will not submit the names of its nominees for local government and other positions if the governor for Upper Nile is not appointed.

The SPLM-IO nominee, Gen. Johnson Olony is being rejected by the president.

Kiir’s office describes Olony as an “active soldier who has not fully subjected himself to the political development in Juba, and is not “within territories that are controlled by SPLM-IO or by the government.”

But the president revealed that he is ready to complete the formation of the unity government.

“I’m always begging my brother [Riek Machar] so that we conclude the agreement and we move forward for any projects that we want to initiate for our country,” Kiir added.

“Peace has now come to South Sudan and we are now at peace. You have witnessed it by yourself. In your sleep, you might have not been woken up by bullets being fired in the air or against the people, this is what we have stopped,” he said.

President Kiir added: “It takes time for the people to understand the agreement. It takes time for everybody to be convinced that there is peace. It is the implementation that is slow. It is slow because of the thinking of others.”