Unified forces screening budget availed
The government has finally released money for the screening of the unified forces after several postponements of the forces’ graduation.
The money has now been delivered to the security committees that were tasked to carry out the screening exercise in the three regions across the country.
Speaking to the press after the council of ministers meeting yesterday, Michael Makuei, Minister of Information, described the issuance of the money as good news.
He said the military generals in charge of the three committees have been directed to begin the process of screening the soldiers as soon as possible.
“These three committees got their funding today and they will be leaving as soon as possible. The president has directed that this process should immediately be expedited so that this first batch of the forces are graduated within the shortest period.”
Makuei echoed the president’s statement that the forces shall be graduated without firearms to dispel international concerns about the South Sudanese government’s unwillingness to graduate the military.
“If we are ready to graduate them under any circumstances as you know very well some of the forces have no arms but we will graduate them with sticks because the international community is on our necks and they are saying that we are not serious so we will graduate them with sticks if necessarily required,” Makuei said.
Due to the arms embargo placed on South Sudan by the UN Security Council in 2018, President Salva Kiir said during the recent 5th governors’ forum that the soldiers will be graduated with sticks.
He stated that the arms embargo has made it difficult for the unity government to graduate the peace forces.
Kiir said the internal issues faced by the parties has also slowed down the entire process of executing the security arrangement as planned.
“We have repeatedly informed the UN system about the negative impact this has on the implementation of chapter two of the agreement, and all we have received in return are more conditions that do not recognize progress achieved so far,” said Kiir.
“Hence, in the distance, we will have no option other than to graduate these forces with sticks when the other two challenges are resolved,” he added.
Kiir contended at the same forum that both Dr Machar, the first vice president, and Vice President Hussein Abdelbaggi had provided lists of their officers that did not align the ranks of the officers and that they had sought time to restructure the ranks.
He stressed that the delay in graduating the military was due to a debate among the parties over what share of the unified army’s command structure each party should get, which he referred to as a “diversion of ideas.”
“Conversationally, army formation starts at the lowest level, from scout to division and above. From this structural setup, it follows the rank of commission officers, which must correspond with the levels of army units they are deployed to lead,” the President argued.
“There are those saying that 45 per cent of the unified army we allocate it to other parties while the government takes the remaining 55 per cent,” he said.
Meanwhile, Major. Gen. Lul Rua Kong, the spokesperson for the South Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF), who is also a member of the security committees that screen the soldiers, told The City Review that he will confirm that after receiving an update on Monday.
“It will be on Monday that I will be in a position to confirm. I have been told that we will be briefed on Monday,” he said in an interview.
Last month, senior army leaders of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) convened a security meeting and decided to screen their personnel at training camps despite a lack of funds.