Is SSPDF an army of the people in today’s South Sudan?

SSPDF troops at the former Terrain Hotel in Juba in July 2017, Photo by Oyet Patrick.

Clashes in South Sudan’s Nasir County in Upper Nile State between South Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF) and armed civilians commonly referred to as “White Army”denotes lack of trust between the civil population and the national army.

The skirmishes in Nasir is not an isolated case, there have been clashes in the past in parts of the country for example, in August 2020, there was fighting between the national army and armed civilians in Warrap State where the media reported that more than 80 people lost their lives.That fighting erupted when the SSPDF launched a disarmament exercise in that state.

The military-civil dimension of interoperability is critical for South Sudan, unless relationship between the military and civilians is appreciated, it will remain an uphill task to build a modern, effective military in the country.

Whereas, one can acknowledge that managing the military today has changed a lot due to technological advancements, at its core, building a modern army, fundamentally remains a human endeavor.

It’s therefore, high time SSPDF began building better relationship with the very civil population which it’s mandated to protect.

This can begin by developing a “military-civil engagement manual” which the army can quickly produce if it does not have one yet.

The “military-civil engagement manual” could help direct the national army officers on how to engage, when to engage the public and who to engage in the civil population.

The SSPDF needs to be intentional such that, its bases/detaches/barracks should become a source of joy for the civil population. For instance, once an army unit is stationed in an area, the troops could drill boreholes not just for the forces but also for the surrounding civil population.

Small as it may be, services such as provision of water for the population can greatly change how they view the army, they will begin to see the presence of the army in their midst as a benefit as opposed to seeing the troops as a burden to the community that brings competition for resources that belong to the civil population.

During the liberation struggle between the year 1983 to 2005 the military then, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army depended on resources of the civil population for survival, the then Southern Sudanese people supported the army whole heratedly becasue that was a liberation army that had no resources. Today, SSPDF is a national army that has to be supported by the government of the day, today’s government is engaged in petroleum business and it collects taxes, the government thus, is expected to take care of the army.

The troops should also set up health centers wherever they are stationed, the health facilities will of course be meant for the army but should help the civil population as well in handling some treatable diseases like malaria, typhoid, minor injuries, sensitizing the population on issues of hygiene. help women with antenatal care and ambulance services.

The health services could further endear the population to the troops, the civil population will begin looking at SSPDF as an army that is there for the population thus, cconflicts between the troops and the population could be reduced.

SSPDF should begin organizing rallies, for instance, “once a month” rally, where the army calls the general public to an open field, ask the public about their security concerns, provide some nationalism lessons including explaining the mandate of the SSPDF and clearly telling the population about “rule of law”, advising that they go to police in case of disagreement that they (the public) are unable to resolve by themselves.

The commanders of the bases/barracks/detaches/units could have these rallies together with local authorities and partners such as the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Inter-Governmental Aauthority on Development (IGAD), African Union (AU), among other partners.

Topics to be tackled for each meeting is designed early enough, research is properly conducted within the community to understand their concerns which then forms the content of issues to be tackled at the rally, support for resources such as drinking water needed for the population during the event could be arranged for, from the troops and partners.

The fora could also be used to disseminate content of the current (2018) peace agreement. Speeches in the rally are in local languages or translated into local languages for everyone to properly understand the message.

The national army should introduce community service for example, “a once-a-month community service day” where the troops go around the village/town/city providing service for the local people, an activity such as collecting rubbish, opening up a feeder road or vaccination of livestock that is properly coordinated with local authorities can help build stronger relationship between the army and the civil population.

Rotation of troops, SSPDF should have a comprehensive plan for troop rotation where for example, a unit serves in an area strictly for a year and it’s moved out of such an area to another location, replaced by a new unit.

The new unit, under a new commander will have to build on from where the previous troops ended, this will help in that, if there was any disagreement between the old unit and the civil population, the new unit will try and resolve the problem and start its relationship with the local community anew.

Rotation of troops also helps the soldiers serve many South Sudanese communities, understand different cultures, learn different languages in the country therefore, promoting nationalism.

Disciplining the army involved in violating rights of the civil population. Each unit of the national army stationed in an area should have a disciplinary body, any soldier reported/suspected to be involved in human rights violation, crime or an offense should be subjected to investigation and if found culpable he/she should be punished. This will help build confidence between the communities in areas of operations and the SSPDF.

Use of available local media, the SSPDF commanders stationed in the various parts of the country could use the media that are available in the areas where they are deployed to address some of the issues that affect relationship between the army and the communities.

The army can design, for example, a monthly, bi-weekly or weekly programs where the army commander in an area, local authorities such as mayors, commissioners, payam administrators, chiefs, youth leaders, women leaders, members of parliament among other leaders could have a joint talk show over the radio, talking about security in the area, building better relationship between the army and the civil population, security plans/arrangements for celebration of/marking public holidays among other issues.

All-in-all, in my opinion, the military area of operations in the human domain is complex, the SSPDF should therefore develop or strengthen two critical departments, the information department with a task of conducting research and providing critical information to the leadership of the troops on the needs of the human domain in areas of operation and information needed for public consumption, then a civil affairs division that should continuously engage with the public in service provision. Building a better relationship between the national army and the civil population in South Sudan is a process, it will require the army to think and act outside the box, the leadership of the army needs to be supportive of not only new but also at times untested ideas and approaches to end the repetitive cases of clashes between the national army and armed civilians.

If the above is done among other things, the SSPDF will become a true army of the people of South Sudan.

Oyet Patrick Charles is a journalist, he is the current Chairperson of the Union of Journalist of South Sudan, vice president of the Federation of the Eastern Africa Journalists, Oyet is also a lawyer, a member of the National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC). Views expressed in the above article are those of the author and don’t in anyway represent the position of Union of Journalists of South Sudan or any other entity the author is affiliated to. Oyet can be reached on oyetpatrick12@gmail.com