South Sudan Government in Exile Declaration of Intent

In Solidarity and Dedication to Peoples of the Republic of South Sudan 

April 22, 2022 — The peoples of the Republic of South Sudan do hereby declare our unity borne of a shared historical imperative and natural right to pursue a fulfilling life and enjoy the inalienable rights of free citizens residing in a sovereign state of our choosing, free of political persecution and economic exploitation. 

Since 2005, every plan the United States, United Nations, African Union, and other parties and nations have pursued to bring functional peace to South Sudan has not adequately addressed the issues affecting the survival of our people. 

Therefore, a new approach is needed to unify the region, stop the inevitable destruction of South Sudan as a United Nations member state, and end the eradication of the ancestors of the nation South Sudan who are the indigenous peoples of the Kushite. 

This document is our affirmation that the people of South Sudan are one, notwithstanding our democratic differences of opinion, life experiences, birth tribe, geographic dispersion, ethnicity, religious affiliation, and economic status. 

The fact that we have survived and thrived for thousands of years in one of the world‘s most contested regions stands as a testament to our endurance. Accordingly, we come together as one mind, one heart, and one body in our shared commitment as true brothers and sisters in our common faith. 

The South Sudanese, the ancestral sons and daughters of the historical landmarks, nation and the legendary Kingdom of Kush, have proved skillful at coalition–building between multiple ethnicities, tribes, religions, and countries. 

In our historic dedication to our common heritage, our birthright, and our shared destiny, each South Sudanese is called upon to re–constitute his or her attitude and approach. Furthermore, each South Sudanese organization and institution is called upon to re–dedicate themselves according to the purpose and principles upon which they have been founded. 

These principles serve as a true and faithful testimony to the existence of our people, who were the first to take on the mantle of governance and leadership in Africa‘s northern region and helped define the hearth of Africa‘s cultural, political, and economic landscape for more than three thousand years. This history is what binds, fortifies, and sustains our historical struggle for an independent nation under ethical and moral leadership. 

This declaration serves to ratify our communal responsibility to establish cohesive governance under one God and in the manifestation of our people‘s link from our past to our future as a leader of civilized nations in the African subcontinent. 

Our civil, institutional, and religious leadership does, herein, affirm their desire to establish a legitimate transitional government, under The South Sudan Government in Exile, pursuant to the spirit and the decision of the Inter–Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) Assembly of Heads of State and Government at its 31st Extra–Ordinary Summit of 12 September 2018, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which decided:

“to urgently convene a High–level Revitalization Forum of the parties to the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCSS), including estranged groups to discuss concrete measures, to restore permanent ceasefire, full implementation of the ARCSS, and to develop revised realistic timelines and implementation schedule towards democratic elections at the end of the Transitional Period.” 

The world polities‘ support of the South Sudanese transitional government in exile validates four laudable elements integral to the Addis Ababa, Ethiopia agreement. 

1. Promoting social justice and enabling the protection of human rights and dignity that are integral to the Agreement and best provided for by ensuring the empowerment of our diaspora and targeted community, especially our most vulnerable women and children, with a high degree of administrative control.

2. Facilitating the establishment of a viable economy through decentralized economic development programs supporting the transitional government in exile desires for free and fair elections under international monitors and international election standards.

3. Protecting territorial integrity by enabling our local governance, free of contracted killings by the current appointed leadership in South Sudan, thus ensuring the physical and psychological security of the people of South Sudan and the refugee and displaced communities living within East African nations and throughout the world.

4. Enhancing national unity and territorial integrity by providing the principal South Sudanese diaspora community with a degree of regional self–rule through a transitional government and a cohesive role and participation in the future government of South Sudan once the government in exile has established the right of South Sudanese peoples to freely choose their future government under democratic rules and international law mandates. 

These previous “laudable elements” and many more, reflected in the spirit of the 2018 agreement, remain aspirational for our people, most of whom live in exile from their nation. However, unfor unelected but appointed government of South Sudan has yet to create the mechanisms necessary to secure the rights of the people and the country‘s diverse ethnic, tribal, and religious groups. 

Accordingly, we have agreed to the establishment of a transitional government in exile, as stated in this paper, for the people of South Sudan. The establishment of such a unique and diverse leadership contributes to the integrity of a sovereign South Sudan by eliminating the distraction of attending to the will of a non–democratic government that stands accused of war crimes, whom key members are on the sanctions lists, and who have earned the rebuke of many nations, to include the African Union, and are now an economic and security burden to their regional neighbors. 

The sanctioning of this transitional government in exile enables the manifestation of a future constituted government of South Sudan to focus on institutional development and the establishment of adequate mechanisms providing the ways and means for. “aspirational element inherent.” in the spirit of the 2018 agreement to manifest. 

Until such time reality converges with the intent of a sovereign South Sudanese government, the enjoyment of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness can only be secured through a transitional government in exile. 

The transitional government in exile serves as a vital foothold for bringing the West and South Sudan into partnerships beginning in Africa per the spirit of the 2018 peace agreement. 

The people of South Sudan under the transitional government are willing and able to contribute to this effort by addressing the security lines of effort in a unifying stand to protect their diaspora and South Sudanese people, i7 working in support of the African Union and within the norms of the international community to secure South Sudan borders in the process of ensuring the survival of the nation and our people. 

South Sudan Government in Exile (Signatories)