Parties kick off screening of unified forces in Bahr el Ghazal region

JUBA — The South Sudan Joint Defense Board (JDB) Joint Military Committee for Greater Bahr el Ghazal region is expected to start the screening of forces at the various joint training centers in Bahr el Ghazal region.

Speaking to Sudans Post on Monday, Spokesperson of the Joint Military Committee assigned to Bahr el-Ghazal region, Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang said the exercise will pave way for the graduation of those who meet the required criteria to serve in the necessary unified forces.

“We are the joint screening and organization and right now as I am speaking to you, I am sited at big mongo tree with rest of team members waiting for official launch of screening exercise,” Koang told Sudans Post reporter this morning in Juba.

Koang said the exercise in Greater Bahr el Ghazal region will last for two weeks. 

“The screening of joint unified forces will kick off today in Bahr el Ghazal and the exercise will take two weeks,” Koang said.

The South Sudan Defense Board (JDB) a body charged with overseeing the training and graduation of the necessary unified forces on 13 December dispatched 470 members team to training sites in Equatoria, Upper Nile and Bahr el Ghazal to screen and reorganized 53,000 forces ahead of graduation.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit in July promised the graduation of the first batch of 53,000 unified troops but this has not been done due to financial constraints and lack of consensus on the unified army command structure among the parties.

Under the 2018 revitalized peace deal, those forces are charged with taking charge of security during the ongoing transitional period.