Kiir orders ministers from Upper Nile region to return home to promote peace

JUBA – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit has directed cabinet ministers from the conflict-ravaged Greater Upper Nile region to begin regular visits to their home areas to engage directly with communities on peace and security, his office said on Tuesday.

The order targets ministers from Unity State, Upper Nile State and Jonglei State — the epicenter of South Sudan’s civil war and the region that has produced most of the country’s powerful rebel movements.

“President Salva Kiir Mayardit has directed cabinet Ministers from the Greater Upper Nile region to make constant visits to their areas to interact with the population on matters of peace and security,” the President’s office said in a statement following the meeting with ministers from the Upper Nile region.

The presidency said Kiir stressed that sustained engagement with communities was essential to restoring public confidence in areas still reeling from years of violence.

“‎The President highlighted that frequent visits by senior officials to their areas would help strengthen public confidence, facilitate dissemination of peace messages, and reinforce stability in the counties, Payams, Bomas and the villages,” the statement added.

The statement said the directive was intended to counter misinformation, rebuild trust in government and reinforce the fragile peace process.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the minister of roads and bridges, Peter Lam Both, welcomed the directive.

He said the ministers “are prepared to go home and engage the locals on peace and development programs.”

South Sudan’s conflict has been fought most intensely in the Greater Upper Nile region, where government forces and opposition groups have clashed repeatedly since the civil war erupted in 2013.

The region is also the political and military base of the main opposition movement, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Riek Machar who is himself from Upper Nile region’s Unity State.

Many of South Sudan’s armed groups, militias and breakaway rebel factions have emerged from Upper Nile, Unity and Jonglei, driven by power struggles, ethnic rivalries and competition over land and oil resources.

Despite the 2018 peace agreement, fighting, defections and localized violence continue to flare across the region.

Years of warfare have devastated towns and villages across northern, central and eastern South Sudan, leaving most rural areas and many urban centres stripped of basic services. Health facilities, schools, roads and clean water systems have either collapsed or never been rebuilt because of chronic insecurity and displacement.

Residents of the Greater Upper Nile region, in particular, have long complained that they feel humiliated and abandoned when it comes to service delivery, despite their region producing many of the country’s senior political and military leaders as well as the oil.

Successive wars and deep insecurity have pushed much of South Sudan’s governance into the capital. Today, many state governors operate largely from Juba, where they maintain offices and conduct key meetings, instead of governing from their states.

Political analysts say this pattern has also been shaped by fear and uncertainty within the political system. Kiir has developed a reputation for dismissing officials days, weeks or months after their appointment.

Those who remain close to the centre of power in Juba are widely seen as politically safer, while prolonged absence from the capital is often viewed as risky.

As a result, intense politicking, lobbying and power-brokering have become entrenched in Juba, while local administrations across the country remain weak or dysfunctional.

Kiir’s directive now seeks to reverse that trend by physically pushing senior officials back into the war-affected Upper Nile region at a time when local conflicts, communal violence and armed rivalries continue to threaten stability.

South Sudan emerged from a five-year civil war in 2018 under a fragile peace deal, but large parts of the Upper Nile region remain trapped in cycles of revenge attacks, militia mobilisation and unresolved land disputes.

Analysts say the success of the President’s directive will depend on whether the ministers’ return leads to real improvements in security and services — or remains a symbolic political gesture.