South Sudan President Calls on Regional Leaders to End Civil War

February 22, 2018 (JUBA) – South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Thursday urged regional leaders to help bring peace to his conflict-ridden nation, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The South Sudanese leader made the remarks at the 19th East African Community (EAC) Heads of State summit held in Kampala, Uganda.

The South Sudanese leader specifically called on the East African regional leaders to be supportive of African initiatives, stressing that war and insecurity are hindering positive development in the region.

He, however, reiterated Africa’s newest nation’s commitment and full support as a member state to the East African community to achieved infrastructure and health development in the region.

Speaking at the same summit, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni urged his counterparts to continue on the path of connecting people on the region and internal investment in infrastructure to boost the facilitation of production and productivity.

“While the rest of Africa continues to register slow growth, EAC is the fastest growing region. This is partly due to solving this bottleneck of communication by investing heavily in infrastructure,” he remarked.

Museveni also requested all partner states to focus on to the challenge of doing business in order to realize value for money for the investments the region makes in infrastructure.

“I wish to mention some of the challenges, like, delays in project delivery caused by procurement challenges. As heads of states, we agreed on the priority projects across the region, but we do not have in place a harmonized approach of procuring for these projects,” stressed the Uganda leader, also chair of the summit.

The two-day summit is under the theme: “Enhancing Socio-Economic Development for deeper Integration of the Community”.

(ST)