South Sudanese president issues shoot to kill order to fight crime

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has ordered the police to shoot dead criminals who engage in robberies and break-ins in the country.

The president made the statement at a police gathering over the weekend in the capital Juba, local media Sudan Tribune reports.

“Your job as police is to eliminate the thieves who break into shops at night, shoot them whenever you see them trying to break into shops,” Kiir said in response to increased crime rate and robberies in the country.

He expressed optimism over the peace agreement in the country which he said was “progressing well and is very strong.”

This follows the East African regional bloc’s Extra-Ordinary Summit in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa which focused on the worsening security situation in South Sudan.

IGAD called on the warring parties to return to the 2015 peace agreement whose implementation was abandoned following renewed violence.

President Salva Kiir did not attend the Summit due to “pressing issues in the country”. He was represented by his First Vice President Taban Deng Gai.

IGAD called for a high level forum for all the parties “including estranged groups to discuss concrete measures to restore permanent ceasefire, to full implementation of the peace agreement and to develop a revised and realistic timeline and implementation schedule towards a democratic election at the end of the transition period.”

Salva Kiir on the other hand described the agreement as “bad” and “complicated”.

“I said it before that the peace agreement I have signed is a bad agreement. Even those who designed the agreement cannot implement it, and this is why we are not able to implement this agreement all this time because it is very complicated,” he said.

“Although we have not marketed ourselves to the international community about what we were doing, we are sure that we are doing correct things. We will continue to do those things, and nobody will talk to us again,” he added.

Kiir declared ceasefire and launched a national dialogue body last month to organise a national peace dialogue which is expected to include the armed opposition to address the root causes of the conflict.

He has however stated that whoever answers to the call will be included in the dialogue after the opposition said it will not participate.

South Sudan has been ravaged by civil war since 2013, after President Salva Kiir fired his deputy Riek Machar, who is currently leading the armed opposition.