Deployment of unified forces hangs in balance over command structure
The transitional government has failed to deploy the first batch of unified forces comprising of 52,000 personnel due to longstanding disagreement over the ratio of the army command structure.
The spokesman of the South Sudan army (SSPDF) Lul Ruai Koang, said that the main opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-in opposition (SPLM/A-IO) led by First Vice President Riek Machar is demanding 50 percent share of the command structure for itself and other fringe opposition parties.
“We have not yet overcome the issue of command ratio, the positions that were allocated to Sudan People’s Liberation Army- in opposition were rejected,” Koang told Juba Echo on Friday in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
In August 2021, the parties appeared to have reached agreement on the army command structure that gave 60 percent ratio to the SPLM-In Government led by President Salva Kiir and 40 percent to the opposition parties.
Koang also disclosed that the deployment strategies for the first batch of unified forces that were graduated in August 2022 are yet to be rolled out due to funding shortfalls.
Charles Tai Gituai, the chairperson the reconstituted joint monitoring evaluation commission (R-JMEC), said on Thursday that despite food and other supplies having been procured to the training centers, there is no new progress regarding the redeployment of phase one of the unified forces or the commencement of phase two of unified forces training.
He also called for funding to be provided to the disarmament demobilization and reintegration commission (DDR) to enable it perform it’s mandate.
Elia Lomuro, the national minister for cabinet affairs said that soldiers are reporting to their respective training centers and security agencies are compiling deployment lists in order to complete the deployment process.
Under the 2018 revitalized peace agreement, South Sudan is supposed to graduate 83,000 unified forces consisting of police, army, intelligence, prisons and wildlife.
