The three military wings of the parties to the revitalized agreement have agreed to work in a collegial spirit and expedite the implementation of the security arrangements.
The development comes during a joint meeting of the security mechanisms organized by the Joint Defense Board in Juba on Friday.
The meeting was graced by the Presidential Adviser on Security Affairs and Chair of the National Transitional Committee, Tut Gatluak.
Other top military generals in attendance included the SSPDF-CDF, 1st Lt. Gen. Santino Deng Wol, SPLA-IO, Acting Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen Gabriel Duop Lam and Lt. Gen Julius Tabule Daniel of SSOA.
The meeting was to brief affiliates of the security mechanisms and the SSPDF General Headquarters on the unification of the command.
Last week, the peace parties signed a deal mediated by the Sudanese government that ended a deadlock over the command structure of the unified forces.
According to the agreement, the power-sharing in the unified army gives the incumbent government under SPLM 60% and the other two armed groups 40%.
Lt. Gen. Thoi Chany Reat, the Deputy CDF who read the joint press statement welcomed the agreement by the presidency to unify the command structure.
“I would like to inform the general public that we welcome the decision of the presidency on the unification of the command across the security institutions,” Gen. Thoi said.
“To my colleagues here and representatives from the SPLA-IO and SSOA I would like to say we are looking forward to you to join us so that together we rebuild and transform our beloved country South Sudan,” he stated.
Gen. Thoi also urged the mechanisms answerable to fasten the course of graduating the already trained army to pave way for the execution of other outstanding provisions of the agreement.
“We urge the Mechanisms to speed up the process of graduation of the unified forces and to similarly spare no efforts in preparing for the phase two of the necessary unified forces” Gen. Thoi added.
He also called on parties to the deal to respect the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.
For his part, Gen. Julius Tabuley of SSOA confirmed that the screening and the restructuring of ranks have already been completed.
He however called on the Joint Transitional Security Committee to work out some of the remaining technical issues within the camps.
“The second thing is a small technicality for the JTSC to work out the timetable which is not a big deal and then the funding”, Gen. Tabuley noted.
Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, SPLA-IO Acting Chief of General Staff, said the implementation of the security arrangements, with the projection to build one national army will stop the issue of clashes within the camps.
“Security arrangement is the backbone of the agreement, it is very important for the parties to implement the security arrangements to unify the forces so that we move from that level to another level that one is very important and I hope if the command comes together we shall be moving forward mostly” Gen. Duop stressed.
Late last year in December, three committees were dispatched to the various training centres and they reorganized and unified the forces in those training centres.
There are about 50,000 forces altogether in all the training centres and those include the army, police, national security, prison, wildlife and civil defense.