Juba, South Sudan
June 6, 2022 — South Sudan’s parties to the 2018 revitalized peace agreement have failed to heed the two-month timeframe to graduate the Necessary Unified Forces as required by the matrix of the 3rd-April agreement.
On 3rd of April, signatories to the revitalized peace deal mediated by Sudan concurred to commit themselves to graduate the first batch of unified forces who have completed training within two months. The timeframe expired yesterday on 3 June.
After the April 3rd deal between the peace partners, President Salva Kiir restructured various command structures of the organized forces and appointed senior officers from the armed forces of the other peace partners to senior roles in a unified structure.
Speaking to the media on Friday, Major General Lul Ruai Koang, the spokesman of the SSPDF acknowledged that nothing new has been achieved so far as the head of the National Transitional Committee (NTC), Tut Gatluak is not in the country at the moment.
“There is nothing new so far. The presidential adviser on security affairs and head of the NTC, Tut Gatluak, will enlighten the joint security mechanism after his return from Khartoum,” SSPDF spokesman Koang told media on Friday.
“He is out of the country so there were no details about the process of graduating the forces.”, he added.
Gen. Koang revealed that the implementation of the security arrangement is still being faced by a number of setbacks especially lack of basic services to the soldiers at training centers.
“Challenges are still in place, including problems related to the logistics of food and medicine for the forces, but the forces are still in the training camps waiting for the decision on their graduation.”, he emphasized.
Last month, Presidential Advisor on Security Affairs Tut Gatluak Manime traveled to Khartoum to follow up on the progress of the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement signed between the Sudanese parties.
On Thursday, RJMEC expressed deep concerns over the failure of peace partners to implement key provisions of the revitalized peace agreement as the unity government is running out of legitimacy in no time.
