South Sudan to graduate unified forces next month – Minister

By Awan Achiek

South Sudan’s Minister of Defense, Angelina Teny, has said that the long awaited graduation of the first batch of 83,000 unified forces is scheduled before May 31st^.

 “We can’t afford not to graduate these forces. I want to emphasize that it is the agreement itself and it is the future of stability of this country and it is what will give us lasting peace. We will see into it that these forces graduate before May 31^st” Teny said during a press conference at Bilpam in Juba.

Teny added that the Ministry of defense is working closely with the National Transitional Committee (NTC) to provide necessities needed to pass out the forces.

“This agreement is the only chance we have and the backbone of this agreement is the transitional security arrangement and the unification of the forces,” she disclosed.

She said failure to  graduate the forces will have a negative impact on the smooth implementation of transitional security arrangements. 

“They (the forces) have stayed in training long enough and if you don’t graduate these forces, the consequences can only be negative not on one part but on all future of this peace agreement,” she added.

According to the 2018 peace deal, the unified forces – composed of opposition and government armies – were supposed to be graduated before the end of the pre-transitional period which ended in February last year with Machar’s appointment as First Vice President.

The forces were to take charge of security during the ongoing transitional period in the country.

However, the government says owing to lack of funds, the forces haven’t yet been graduated.