The Joint Military Ceasefire Commission (JMCC) has begun the process of sending registered forces to designated training centres, a military official linked to the opposition said.
The JMCC is a joint security mechanism responsible for oversight and coordination of forces in cantonment and barracks, and reports to the commanders in chief of the respective parties to the revitalised peace deal.
Lam Paul Gabriel, deputy military spokesman of the opposition SPLA-IO, said on Monday that the JMCC has already dispatched its teams to the cantonment sites across the country in order to send the necessary unified forces to the training bases.
“The JMCC members have now gone to the cantonment sites to send the forces to the training centers so that the training can kick off,” Lam said.
The deputy military spokesman pointed out that the registration of forces in the various cantonment sites had been finalised, saying the process of moving troops to the training centers will continue for a week.
The move came a week after the ceasefire monitoring team announced that 2,200 army instructors were ready to start training of the necessary unified forces. The ceasefire monitors disclosed that 19 military training centres had been assessed.
Earlier this month, the national government allocated $16.5 million for the security mechanisms to speed up the creation of unified forces, a key requirement of the 2018 peace accord.
The amount was allocated to the security mechanisms through the National Pre-Transitional Committee, a body tasked with the oversight and coordination of the activities of the pre-transitional period.
Government and opposition leaders have extended the deadline to form a unity government twice, most recently on November 7, 2019, and have twice failed to make any progress towards a unity government or adequate implementation of the peace agreement.
On November 12, President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar were given 100 days to resolve outstanding issues and form a transitional government by February.