The Sudanese Minister of Defence, retired Major General Yasin Ibrahim, has said that the delays in graduating and unifying armed forces will affect South Sudan's revitalized peace agreement negatively. 

Gen. Ibrahim, who was part of a delegation that accompanied Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok on a visit to Juba which concluded over the weekend, told Radio Tamazuj that his government, which is a guarantor to the South Sudanese peace deal, hopes that the parties will expeditiously find a solution to the impasse.  

“The delay will affect the peace implementation. The forces have been in the training centers for more than two years now,” Gen. Ibrahim said. “This is due to some challenges that have been explained by the first vice president and the presidential security advisor. We hope that an immediate and urgent solution should be identified which should help in resolving this matter once and for all.”

He said that the will by the principal parties in the South Sudanese peace agreement to implement the peace deal has seen them make great gains but that a few challenges remain that have to be tackled. 

“We think that the implementation of the security arrangements of the revitalized agreement in South Sudan has gone with some positive moves ahead due to the existing will between the two parties (SPLM-IG and SPLM-IO),” Gen. Ibrahim said. “We are aware of some challenges facing them and during our visit, we identified some of these challenges which are related to the graduation of the joint forces. These are few challenges and we are serious with our partners in South Sudan to iron out these obstacles and soon we will work to resolve them and fully implement this part of the security arrangements.”

He intimated that the Sudanese government was facing a similar situation regarding the implementation of the security arrangements in Sudan as well. 

“But we are confident that our brothers in South Sudan have gone far ahead in this regard and we are hopeful that soon this will see tangible results which will lead to the full implementation of the peace agreement that would be pleasing to all parties in South Sudan,” he added.

Gen. Ibrahim said that Sudan regards the internal contractions and fallout within the SPLM/A-IO as an internal issue that has to be resolved amicably. 

“We regard this as an internal difference and the opposition are rather better off to resolve their differences. We hope that we can see South Sudanese united as the opposition and the government which would complement the stability of Sudan,” Gen. Ibrahim said. 

Asked about the security arrangement at the border of the two countries, Gen. Ibrahim said, “Discussions regarding the borders have its mechanisms as well as border trade. But what I can say is that any discussion about the security of the border will be tackled through the joint high security and a political committee of the two countries. During this visit, the two countries have agreed on a time frame and a meeting is scheduled on 4-5 September to discuss further on this matter.”