Peace soldiers assembled at training and cantonment sites in Western and Eastern Equatoria States are calling for graduation over deteriorating living conditions.
The forces say they have been without food and medical supplies for about a month now. They have also cited the delay in their graduation as one of the challenges facing the already trained army.
Those who spoke to Radio Tamazuj say the mechanisms charged with the responsibility of their welfare should speed up the process of their graduation to ease the challenges.
Costa Joseph, who is the Spokesperson of SPLA-IO in Western Equatoria State Costa, told Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday that the situation of the forces in areas of Maridi, Mundri and Namatina has worsened.
“Here in cantonment there is no food for our forces in Maridi, Mundri, Namatina Cantonment areas and our children are not learning they are in the bush, no medicine even now during rain, no shelter for them, we need those forces to be graduated so that the rest follow so that they become the army of the Nation,” Costa Joseph stated.
Maj. Gen. Simon Samuel Alisolomon who is the Commander at Division 9B in Western Equatoria State said his forces have ended training and are now organized for graduation.
Gen. Alisolomon said over 3,000 forces under his command are already equipped to safeguard the peace process.
“My forces are many in training site just waiting for graduation so that the rest who are in cantonment can be taken for training,” Gen. Simon said
“The total number of soldiers I have in training is 3,750 in Mairidi and Juba also in Cantonment I still have 750 who are ready to be taken for training,” he added.
Meanwhile, in Owinykibul Training Center of Eastern Equatoria State, at least 1,700 soldiers are confirmed to be waiting for the graduation exercise there.
Brigadier general John Tor Biliu is the commander in charge at Owinykibul training centre.
He said, “The situation is quite calm actually the forces at Owinykibul training camp they are ready but only the issue of food, some people went to nearby places here to look for food not very far places, they are waiting for orders that if a day is fixed by the government for the graduation so all of them will to us here. Currently, the forces that are with me here that are ready, organized and filled the forms are 1781 they are ready these are the forces that are with me at the training Centre here
About 53,000 forces are expected to graduate from the training camps. They include the army, police, and national security, among others.
The revitalized peace agreement expects the unified forces to be 83,000.
The graduation has been postponed several times due to what the government term “lack of funds”.
But peace observers call it a “lack of political will” given the millions of US dollars the government offered the National Transitional Committee.
There are thousands of troops drawn from the SSPDF, SPLA-IO, and the Opposition Alliance across the country. They have been at the training camps since 2019.
Some soldiers have been deserting these training centres due to a lack of food, medicines, and safe clean water.