November 18th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has sent a senior army commander to South Sudan to monitor the implementation of the security arrangement and the reunification of the rival forces, a Ugandan army spokesman has said.
Maj. Gen. Paul Lokech who currently serves as the Chief of Staff of the UPDF (Uganda People’s Defense Force) Air Force will, on behalf of President Museveni, monitor the establishment of one national army according to UPDF spokesman Brigadier Richard Karemire.
“It is not a transfer but a special assignment to monitor on behalf of the guarantors of the South Sudan peace process, the assembling, screening, demobilization and integration of the armed forces of South Sudan,” Brigadier Karemire was quoted by the Nile Post as saying.
South Sudan government and opposition groups signed a revitalized version of a 2015 peace agreement last year to end years of what is believed to be one of the brutal civil wars in Africa.
Uganda – beside Sudan – is a guarantor of the peace agreement signed exactly on September 12th 2018 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa following months of talks in Sudan’s capital Khartoum.
The parties were required by the agreement to form a unity government in May but because issues such as the security arrangements (formation of one national army, police and national security) were not in place, the parties had to meet in May to extend the pre-transitional period.
Based on the May extension, the parties were supposed to form a unity government this month but because the same issues were not implemented, the parties had to extend the pre-transitional period for yet another 3 months.
Uganda which played a central role to make sure that the pre-transitional is extended is reportedly supervising the implementation of the security arrangements.
