VP Abdelbagi urges students to embrace peace

The Vice President for Service Cluster, Hussein Abdelbagi has urged students to denounce violence and embrace peace in order to achieve stability across the country.

“As the government we want students to be patriotic, hardworking and innovators in the society, we need you to be ambassadors of peace and peacemakers in our community. Let us denounce violence and embrace peace among ourselves,” Abdelbagi said during the inauguration ceremony of the new leadership of the South Sudan National Student Union at Palm Africa Hotel.

“This country cannot progress or regress depending on how young people handle it. Therefore, I implore you to reject any call for any attempt to confuse you to pick up arms against your own brothers or sisters for whatever reason whatsoever. It is time to work for a better, stable and economically prosperous South Sudan,” he said.

Gabriel Changson Chang, the Minister for Higher Education said the ministry is working out a students support fund program, noting that the fund will cater for feeding and accommodation at various public universities.

“There is a bill ready to be passed by the cabinet and also to be passed by the national legislative assembly to become a lawyer and that law will establish student support fund to cater for all issues that are confronting university students, things like feeding, dormitories, lecture halls, equipment for the computer lab and other things, “said Chang.

“We feel that it is the only way out because we have failed through the normal budget process for the ministry to be provided with funds to cater for all these things,” he said.

The South Sudan National Students Union on April 7, 2022, elected Omot as the chairman, Edward Joseph Makur as the speaker, James Lako as the rapporteur and Aluel Wol was later appointed as the deputy chairperson.

Khamis Othow Omot, the chairperson of the South Sudan National Students’ Union said the union will work in collaboration with the ministry of higher education to address challenges facing students.

“We will engage in collaboration with the ministry of higher education and the service cluster to address issues of academic instability, to address issues of feeding and accommodation within the public universities,” said Omot.

“We will also partner to encourage girl child education across the country, our sisters are forced to marriage, we want to make sure that girls reach the level of higher education,” he said.