Juba, South Sudan
December 21,2021—The Joint Security team of Joint Defense Board (JDB) has landed in Western Bahr el Ghazal State for the screening of the unified army in cantonment sites.
The screening and reorganization of forces is a must for the graduation of the at least 83,000 unified forces drawn from various parties to take charge of security during the ongoing transitional period as required by Revitalized Peace Agreement signed in 2018.
Addressing the media upon arrival in Western Barh El Ghazal state, Wau, the spokesman of the South Sudan People’s Defense Force Major General Lul Ruai Koang said the exercise will take place on Monday at Masna Biira.
“We will launch the process tomorrow (Monday) in the morning at Masna Biira and after the launching, the military team will split into two, one team will travel to Mapel to go and do reorganization, screening, and putting the necessary unified forces into their respective military formation,” said Gen. Major Koang told journalists.
According to SSPDF Spokesperson, the second group will proceed to Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Aweil to meet the state officials and then go to Pandtit to undertake the same process.
Gen. Koang said the screening of forces will only take two weeks across the country.
Gen. Garang Ayii Akol, the head of the delegation said, all parties to the 2018 peace deal are represented in the committee.
“The committee is comprised of 74 members, all of them are officers from all the political parties including SPLA-IO, SSOA, and the leading IG, “We have come with all forms for the screening. The screening includes the eligibility criteria, if somebody did not meet the requirement, she or he will not qualify for the rank.”, Gen. Akol said.
He added that the members of South Sudan’s Disarmament and Demobilization Commission (DDRC) are also in the committee to work with forces who will not have met the eligibility criteria.
Akol also called on all forces who had abandoned camp to return to the training centers for the exercise, which paves the way for their graduation.
Other teams have been dispatched to the Greater Equatoria and Greater Upper Nile regions to screen and reorganize forces camped there.
