Somalia, CES pledge to boost ties

The Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Somalia Abdihakim Abdullahi Omar Amay to South Sudan has pledged to strengthen relations with the Central Equatoria State government.

Abdullahi revealed this during a courtesy call to the Governor of Central Equatoria State Emmanuel Adil Anthony Wednesday.

The two leaders discussed bilateral relations between South Sudan and Somalia.

“Ambassador Abdihakim lauded the leadership of Governor Adil for exhibiting cordial hospitality to the Somali, especially the business community in Juba.

He reiterated his government’s commitment to partner with the state government in different aspects for the mutual benefit of the two nations.

Abdullahi said South Sudan and Somalia share a lot of commonalities, particularly in social, economic, and political aspects.

Governor Adil called for cooperation in exploring areas of potential investment in the state and pledged to create a more conducive environment for the business community to boost economic development.

Four-pillar system

In October, Adil directed all the partners in the state to align their services with the four-pillar system to avoid overlapping of the duties during the CES Governor and Partners forum organized by the state Ministry of Cabinet Affairs in collaboration with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.

The pillars included peace and security stabilization, economic recovery, service delivery and good neighbourliness.

He stressed that peace and security stabilization would help in promoting dialogue among communities for peace and security to prevail.

Adil said the economic recovery pillar would help in reviving the economy by promoting agriculture and entrepreneurship through the provision of loans.

“The service delivery pillar would aim at rehabilitation of destroyed infrastructure, training of human resources and combating covid-19 pandemic among others,” he explained. 

He added that institutions under the same pillar would operate under a government institution operating in the same pillar.

Security concern

However, Governor Adil raised the concern of the presence of the holdout groups within the state which he said were destabilizing the state progress.

“The NGOs dealing in peacebuilding programs are to be identified so that they liaise with the state institutions responsible for peacebuilding,” he said.

The governor directed all the institutions to sort their activities according to the four pillars to avoid duplication of programs in the state.

“Our state is one of the states which has challenges as far as implementation of peace is concerned because we still have hold out-groups,” he said.

Forum

Governor Adil announced that the state would be holding a monthly consultative meeting to improve work and strengthen cooperation in the state.

 “These forums will iron a lot of things among ourselves including setting key strategic directions. The government of Central Equatoria has rolled out four policy direction pillars towards all government and partners programs in the state should be geared to achieve its objectives,” he said.

The Head of the UNMISS field office Geetha Pious said that UNMISS would cooperate with the government of Central Equatoria State in the implementation of the R-ARCSS. 

“As part of supporting the peace agreement, we in coordination with the government will double up the blueprint of the government of Central Equatoria State. The vision of Central Equatoria State is to create a stable government and stable state,” she said.