A senior opposition leader has described the citizens’ moods during this year’s Christmas celebration as best of all the past years.

 Onyoti Adigo, the leader of the Democratic  Change party, who serves as the Minister of Livestock and Fisheries said this year’s Christmas festivities stand out because of peace.

“The majority of South Sudanese for the last seven years have not been enjoying the celebration following the conflict that broke out in 2013, and again in 2016,” he said.

“All people across the country are going to celebrate this Christmas and entering new year peacefully because there are silenced guns everywhere and officers have been deployed in all the big towns in the country to boost security,” Onyoti told The City Review in an interview yesterday.

However, more than two million people will not be able to celebrate their Christmas within the country as they still leave as refugees in the neighbouring countries.

It was estimated by “Office Holiday” that over two billion people globally would celebrate the birth of Christ which is scheduled for December 25 every year and the new year.

According to Onyoti, the graduation of the unified forces at the end of this year will contribute to peaceful South Sudan starting the next year 2022.

“We hope that next year will be the year of peace because we are seeing the implementation of the peace agreement [which] is moving and by next year before the election, we hope that all the country is going to be peaceful,” he said.

He said refugees in some states have started returning and are eager to resettle in their original homes especially in Central Equatoria and the Eastern Equatoria states.

However, Onyoti said massive celebrations could likely be interrupted due to the rise in the cases of COVID-19 infection in the country.

Recently, the Minister of Health confirmed the rise of COVID-19 cases from 80 to 166 from Thursday to Friday.

According to the figures from the COVID-19 Incident Manager, Dr John Romunu, the country’s cumulative caseload rose to 13,309. Currently, the total active cases are 562 and the recovered cases are 12,614. The country’s death toll stands at 133 and there was no new death recorded as of Friday last week.

The majority of the citizens have not got the vaccine following some doubt from the citizens on the vaccines.