Juba, South Sudan
June 10, 2022 — The Co-Chair of Joint Defense Board has revealed that the graduation of over 50,000 unified national forces will take place after two weeks from now.
General Garang Ayii Akol disclosed that the Joint Defense Mechanism meeting scheduled for Monday will decide on the exact date of the graduation of the unified forces.
He believes that the delays in the graduation of forces is lack of availability of enough resources.
Gen. Akol stressed that JDB is working on a timetable for graduation of the forces in Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile and Equatoria region.
“According to the matrix, the graduation of the forces has already been decided and it will be at the end of June. We are working on that and also the leadership of JDB and JTAC to graduate the forces on the respective date,” Gen. Akol told media.
According to the 2018 revitalized peace deal, the unity government expects to graduate 83,000 unified forces drawn from various parties to take charge of security during the ongoing transitional period.
At least tens of thousands of forces have been assembled and trained at various cantonment sites and training centers across the country since 2020.
Dozens of trainees are reported to have died of starvation and sickness in cantonment and training sites due to lack of basic services.
The government also made a number of failed pledges to graduate the forces but factors such as insufficient funding, lack of political will among the peace parties, the recently imposed arms embargo and allegations of many ranks in the opposition forces are said to be complicating the efforts.
The trainees including members of the army, police, wildlife service, prison service as well as fire brigade and related security apparatus are now expected to graduate this month.
General Garang Ayii Akol, who is also the Commander for Riverine units and assistant Chief of Defense Forces of SSPDF, confirmed to media the joint defense body will decide on the graduation timetable next.
According to Gen. Akol, percentages are very clear and those people have already taken their duties in their offices and they working very well, which he described as a good step in chapter two of the security arrangement
“On Monday will be a decision on how is it going to be, like which training to be graduated first and second or in Bahr El ghazal, Upper Nile and Equatoria region,” said Akol.
Last month, the UN mission in South Sudan and the International Community reiterated the call for the expeditious graduation of the unified forces to help fill security gaps at the local level.
