Oct 6, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — The head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, David Shearer, has raised concern over soldiers training centres collapsing due to lack of food, logistics and medical supplies for soldiers.
Briefing to the media in Juba, South Sudan, Shearer regrets that soldiers are abadoning training camps due to lack of food, logistics and basic supplies.
′′Due to food shortages, logistics and other things being provided to training centers, people are starting to leave and go backwards ” David Shearer told the press yesterday in Juba.
He went on to express his fears of the training centres losing soldiers back to the communities due to external stresses like the need for better living conditions.
Shearer called on the peace parties to quickly finalize the training and deployments of troops saying that losing these soldiers back to the communities could increase chaos and tribal feuds in the communities.
David Shearer believes that the more soldiers continue to stay in training sites, the greater the risk of losing them due to external stresses like the need for better living conditions.
According to him, delays in their integration will lead to frustration, hunger, and possibly violence, confirming that a number of soldiers are now returning to villages and roads leading to villages are becoming unsafe.
This is not the first time Shearer has raised this concern. Last month, he noted that cantoned soldiers are getting more worried due to lack of food and logistical support leading to many leaving the sites and becoming a source of insecurity in many parts of the country.
He urged for an urgent integration of the soldiers.
His concerns are similar to recent fears expressed by the Ceasefire Monitoring Board – CTSAMMVMVM which also raised concerns about the fleeing of troops from UNIFIL training sites across the country.
In February, trainers at the unified Rajaf police training station said two trainees had died, and at least 200 more are visiting the military clinic daily due to poor living conditions.
In March, government soldiers at a training center in Jonglei state said they lacked necessary facilities in the training centre while in West Bahr El Ghazal a soldier has revealed that they were living on ′′ salted porridge”.
According to the peace agreement, which President Kiir and other parties signed in September 2018, the training and unification of forces should have been the priority during the pre-transitional period and also during the transitional period; however, the parties have failed to implement these provisions for the last 2 years.
