By Chuol Chanyong

The Chairman of the National Transitional Committee (NTC), Kuol Manyang Juuk declared March 1, 2025, as the beginning of the training for the second phase of the unified forces.

He made the announcement on Thursday during his first meeting as the chair of the NTC with the RJMEC.

Juuk continued that the second stage of the security arrangements process will start with the training of Phase Two of unified forces and will continue for six months.

“The Secretariat of the National Transitional Committee and all security mechanisms have set the action plan to train at least 150,000 unified forces in the second phase with a total budget of USD 95 million,” he stated.

Under the 2018 revitalized peace Agreement, South Sudan is supposed to train and graduate 83,000 personnel to take charge of security during the ongoing transitional period. These troops will make up the police, army, intelligence, and prison services.

In 2022, over 52,000 security personnel graduated as the first batch of the Necessary Unified Forces (NUF) and joined various ranks within the security sector to form a unified national army, police and other organized forces.  Around 4,000 army NUF personnel have been deployed to Upper Nile, Eastern Equatoria, Western Equatoria and Western Bahr El Ghazal States