The Joint Defense Board, a body tasked with overseeing the training and graduation of the Necessary Unified Forces (NUF), has today announced that the long-awaited screening of forces will begin from Tuesday as the Joint Screening and Reorganisation teams are dispatched.
The screening and reorganization of forces is a prerequisite for the graduation of the NUF.
Under the 2018 peace deal, South Sudan is supposed to graduate 83,000 unified forces drawn from the various parties to take charge of security during the ongoing transitional period.
The JDB had in mid-October, said the graduation of the forces will take place in the first week of November. However, the process was delayed as the teams tasked to screen forces at the training sites cited a lack of logistical support to begin their work.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday, government spokesperson Michael Makuei Lueth said funds to facilitate the screening process were availed and the teams will begin their work this week.
“The money is out already and the teams should be going to the states. The money was released last Friday,” he said.
Major General Lul Ruai Koang, a spokesman for the military, also confirmed that resources have been availed and the teams dispatched.
“This morning, JDB briefed the teams going for screening and reorganization of forces in Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Equatoria. The teams are ready. The team going to Equatoria will start their work tomorrow morning and the teams going to Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile will go on Wednesday,” Ruai said.
He adds, “So the issues of money which led to the delay, has been resolved. NTC brought money and gave it to the JDB, and the teams are now ready to start the work.”
Ruai said the three teams have about 272 members and are expected to complete screening within the next two weeks.
“The Equatoria team will begin their work in Rejaf, in Rombur and they will go to Maridi, Moroto, and the other places. The team going to Upper Nile state has been divided into two because the region is big and is mostly flooded. One team will be in Malakal and will do screening in centers close to Malakal. The second team will go to Bentiu because we have two centers there,” Ruai explained. “But the team going to Bahr el ghazal has good roads and not much floods, they will go to three centers there.”
Peace monitors have in the past expressed concern over dire conditions in training sites that have forced a sizable number of soldiers to desert due to lack of food, medicines, and shelters.
Ruai urged forces who had deserted the training sites or had left for personal reasons to immediately report back to camp.
“All soldiers who have left the training sites, to visit family, to go to a hospital, permitted to go attend to personal matters, it is now time for them to return to the training centers,” he added.
The South Sudan People’s Defence Forces spokesperson revealed that as the screen takes place, the presidency will be working to unify the command of the forces, after which the graduation of forces will take place.