Over 50 youth attended a two-day forum on peace and conflict management organized by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Civil Affairs section in Yambio, Western Equatoria State.

The conference was concluded with participants adopting strong recommendations to bring peace in their state. State Union’s Youth President Simple John said “The topic of the discussion was to acquire skills on how to resolve conflict as youth and promote peace among the community and we thank UNMISS Civil Affairs for supporting this program.”

The peace forum brought youth from churches, civil society groups and armed youth groups from around Yambio who willingly identified issues which ignite conflict among the communities and how it could be resolved.

One of the active youth during the forum William Biningba said “It is the youth who are being used by politicians to kill each other, but youth should stand up to denounce such act to give them a room to go to school and be good future leaders.” He further urged youth to be “peacemakers in South Sudan in all communities.”

Conflict erupted in Western Equatoria State this year and spread to almost all the ten counties resulting in killing, looting, rape and displacement.

Following the workshop, the youth agreed to engage in general cleaning at the state hospital on Monday to show their solidarity to the government to end crisis.