Paramount Chief of Western Equatoria State Wilson Peni Rikito is appealing to everybody to see the danger of coronavirus and follow the preventive measures announced by the high level taskforce committee.
He called on citizens to listen to their leaders to prevent them from contracting the pandemic.
The chief said people should be wise and careful during this pandemic adding that South Sudanese are saying that black people are not dying from COVID 19 which is not true.
‘Some people have died in Africa; so somebody can also die within South Sudan. For me as a traditional leader, I don’t want one of my citizens to die because the war has destroyed the country and many people have been killed. So it is very important to protect ourselves’, said Chief Peni.
The traditional leader cautioned everybody against unnecessary sharing of things like cigarette among others because the virus can spread so easily.
‘People should not go to crowded places. People should avoid taking beer in one place like how traditionally we used to take our local beer. People should avoid that. In our tradition, three people can smoke one cigarette which is not allowed because through that, this virus can spread easily to different people’, the Paramount Chief stressed.
He encouraged the people of Western Equatoria and South Sudan at large not to panic at this difficult moment.
The speaker made the remarks in a telephone interview with CRN in Juba on Monday.