South Sudan’s army chief Gen. James Ajongo Mawut said in a statement that the military leadership was exploring ways to come up with a distinctive uniform for the national army.
General James Ajonga explained that the army has more than 10 patterns of military uniforms, some of which are used by armed groups, including armed civilians.
“When you look around in the countryside and in towns, you find everyone is wearing SPLA uniforms. You cannot differentiate between our soldiers, ordinary civilians and other armed militia groups because they are all wearing military uniforms of the SPLA,” he said.
“This is a real challenge the military fatigues include tiger stripe camouflage, olive drab, and jungle fatigues,” he explained.
The army general pointed out that distinctive military uniforms will help differentiate the SPLA army from criminals and militia groups. “What I am saying is that, this uniform is being used by criminals,” he said.
“This is what brought us into problems with the international community. “Sometimes they say the SPLA is a militia. Why? It is because if they find us wearing different clothes like this, they will not say that we are an army, because what they refer to as uniform is something similar,” he said.
He further said victims of night robberies and attacks, including human rights organizations have complained that it is hard to differentiate between criminals and government soldiers.