JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan’s president has urged the nation’s greater than 2 million refugees to return residence in his first assembly with displaced individuals since civil conflict erupted virtually a decade in the past.

President Salva Kiir’s attraction on Wednesday got here because the nation prepares to carry its first elections since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011. South Sudan’s delayed elections are set to happen in December 2024.

South Sudan continues to be recovering from the five-year civil conflict that erupted in late 2013, killed a whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals and ended with a peace settlement in 2018. For some time, fleeing South Sudanese shaped the world’s largest refugee camp in neighboring Uganda.

The president’s assembly got here two weeks after the visiting Pope Francis met with displaced South Sudanese within the capital, Juba, and appealed for lasting peace.

“With peace implementation transferring in direction of the ultimate section the place elections will finish the transitional interval, repatriating our individuals from the camps in neighboring international locations ought to prime our agenda,” Kiir mentioned.

The president assured individuals returning to the nation of their safety, and he appealed to worldwide companions to help the federal government in reintegrating returnees.

“For many who will decide to return to their recurring areas of residence, the federal government will present safety,” Kiir mentioned. Those that can’t return to their residence communities might be allotted land in states the place displacement camps are situated, he mentioned.