JUBA, South Sudan.
Sept 23, 2016(Nyamilepedia) —– The Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) on Wednesday started and ended on Thursday a two-day workshop for peace deal stakeholders to review security arrangements in Juba.
The discussions are focusing on the UN Security Council resolution on the deployment of a regional protection force in Juba.
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Speaking during the opening sessions, John Luk Jok, Minister of Transport said South Sudanese lost confident in their government and are leaving the country due to insecurity. He hopes the agreement on cantonment also includes them so that there is no anybody carrying guns to terrorize people.
The JMEC says stakeholders to the peace agreement have agreed on a set of security modalities for Juba and cantonment of forces in line with the UN resolution to deploy a protection force in the country.
The JMEC Chairperson, Festus Mogae, said that an implementation of resolutions of the workshop will start soon, in the coming days. He did not attend the workshop because he is currently attending the UN General Assembly in New York, United States.
In his statement was read out by his Deputy, Retired General Augustine Njoroge. “The parties have agreed in principal on the matter of forces required for Juba, redeployment of forces, and commitment to jointly through the technical details of armament types, and the numbers at JMCC and UNMISS levels,” partly read the statement.
He added that we’ve also received a detailed briefing and proposal on the cantonment, unification and demobilization of forces, with the approval for establishing cantonment sites in previously contested areas of Greater Equatoria and Bahr Al Ghazal. The JMEC says the UN Mission in the country also presented its concept of operation and the regional protection for to be deployed, which is readjusted to conform to the Joint Military Ceasefire plan.
On its part, the Transitional Government of National Unity said efforts are already underway to improve operations of the organized forces, especially in Juba.
Dr Richard K Mulla, Minister of Federal Affairs said that plans for the security of Juba are ready, as we noticed from the workshop but more work has to be done and In relation to discussions, all issues will be handled by the technical committee, especially on issues of coordination. “The work on cantonment, unification, and demobilization of forces has also started; sites in Equatoria have been already been decided, however, sites in Bahr Al Ghazal are still to be identified,” Mulla said.
Mulla told the media that the JMEC ceasefire team will make a reconnaissance and assessment of the locations for providing logistics. This will happen after the cantonment of the forces.
“Technical work, which is the next step, will be undertaken by the JMEC ceasefire team, JMEC’s security mechanism team, UNMISS, and the TGoNU.” He said.
In hoping soon, the implementation of the UN Resolution 2304; which calls for the deployment of the protection force in Juba, and to activate other security arrangement mechanisms will kick off it starts.
Mr. Manawa Peter Gatkuoth, spokesman of the SPLA/M-IO accused the government of trying to make use of JMEC in Juba to recruit soldiers for Taban Deng. He called for the deployment of regional troops in Juba.
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