January 4th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan parties to the revitalized peace agreement have started the training of the necessary unified forces, several opposition and government sources have confirmed
The Joint Transitional Security Committee (JTSC) said it started on Thursday in Wau, the capital of the defunct Western Bahr el-Ghazal state, the training of the necessary unified forces (NUF).
Last week, government and opposition forces began to assemble at different training centers. The NUF will consist of 83,000 drawn from the rival South Sudan parties.
“We started training of organized forces today at Massana Biira in Wau,” Lt. General Garang Ayii Akol who is the head of Joint Transitional Security Committee in Bahr el Ghazal said on Thursday.
“We received 1,700 from forces cantonment sites and we are expecting more to come from barracks and the civil defense, the wildlife service and from the states.”
South Sudan government and several opposition groups signed a revitalized version of a 2015 peace deal in the year 2018 to end the ongoing civil war. The agreement provided for the unification of the rival forces to form the first professional national army.
Because this force has not been in place, the parties decided to skip several time the formation of the Reconstituted Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU).
Currently, a 100-extension of the pre-transitional period is in its second phase and the parties are gearing up to complete the pre-transitional tasks provided for in the peace deal.
