The South Sudan Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) Commission is currently visiting military training centers in Wau of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal State to sensitize forces about the importance of DDR.
Regina Joseph Kaba, the deputy chairperson of the DDR Commission, said that their visit is to enlighten the troops about the benefits of DDR and upcoming plans to reintegrate selected candidates into civilian life.
“We as the members of the DDR commission came to Wau for a visit to address our forces about DDR. What is the benefit and importance of DDR? We arrived in Wau on Friday and we met the state governor and we explained to her why we are here,” Kaba explained. “We also went to Masana Beera Training Center and we addressed the forces there about DDR. Today we are here in Grinti military barracks and we met the forces and we addressed them about our mission.”
According to her, the unified forces in the military training centers, including those at the military bases in Wau, did not go through screening to determine their fitness before joining the army.
On Tuesday, the members of the commission began visiting army barracks in Western Bahr-el-Ghazal State and asking senior army officials to identify soldiers who are eligible to be disarmed, demobilized, and reintegrated into civilian life.
The team from the commission visited several military facilities including Masana Beera unified forces training center, Fifth Infantry Division headquarters Grinti and Ngwa-Alima opposition forces cantonment site.
Meanwhile, Colonel Manyien Dut Makoi, the acting chief of administration at the Fifth Infantry Division, welcomed the DDR team and said they are ready to cooperate in the process.