Subnational violence hampers transitional justice implementation

The ongoing subnational violence in various parts of South Sudan has curtailed the work of the transitional justice mechanism, James Kuong Ninrew, the chairperson of the Transitional Justice Working Group has decried.

Addressing journalists at Dembesh Hotel Wednesday, Kuong underscored that it was a challenging task to implement a justice system in conflict-torn areas adding that justice implementation was not being prioritized by humanitarian actors.

“We have problems with transitional justice, transitional justice is supposed to be working once peace has been achieved, working toward peaceful transition but in our case, we are doing the work while in active conflict, that is one problem,” said Kuong.

“The second problem is that people are not seeing transitional justice as important as it is supposed to be. They prefer dropping relief, medicines and others, so there are other priorities that they think are priorities,” he added.

The chairperson said that the transitional justice system is supposed to be implemented alongside the revitalized peace deal, noting that the transitional justice will advance accountability, truth, reconciliation, and healing across the country.

South Sudan has seen an upsurge in subnational violence in recent months with the latest in latest in Leer County of Unity State.