![Kuol Manyang Juuk, Senior Advisor to President Salva Kiir and Chairperson of the High-Level Ad Hoc Committee and the National Transitional Committee. [Photo: Courtesy]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Kuol.jpg?resize=847%2C476&quality=89&ssl=1)
Speaking after a meeting in Juba on Tuesday, Gen. Manyang, who doubles as a senior presidential advisor, said plans are underway to start training of the second phase of unified forces.
“There has been a good meeting, and within the coming few weeks, by the end of this month, they’ll be training as a start for the first two,” Gen. Manyang told reporters in Juba on Tuesday.
He said the NTC had developed an action plan, and arrangements are in place for the second phase of security arrangements as stipulated in the 2018 revitalized peace agreement.
“But then we need to start making an arrangement for the starting of the second phase of training the forces that will form the last group that will join them,” he said.
He said under phase one, some soldiers were deployed and others are still waiting for commissioning, which he said will be done very soon.
He stated the training of phase two will run only for three months after which they will be deployed to provide security during the December 2026 elections.
“They will run for three months, after which they are passed, and then all is now in the right hand, under one end of the committee, who is the president of mine,” he said.
“This is very necessary for a successful meeting of elections by the end of 2006, because they will provide security throughout the country. And the election campaign will take place freely; the sensors and whatever the situation will take place because of the security.”
The National Transitional Committee (NTC) is a body tasked with overseeing the implementation of the 2018 peace deal.
The two leaders, Kiir and Machar, inked a revised version of a 2015 peace accord in September 2018, bringing an end to five years of brutal conflict characterized by ethnic divisions.
As stipulated in the agreement, provisions were made for the integration of the rival armed factions into unified forces, slated to form the foundation of South Sudan’s professional national army.
However, the process of reunification remains incomplete.
While approximately 53,000 unified forces from phase one of the agreement completed their training in 2022, only 4,000 have been deployed thus far, albeit without firearms.
President Kiir has attributed the delay in arming the forces to constraints imposed by an existing arms embargo.
However, the international community, including South Sudan’s principal Western ally, the United States, contends that the nation possesses a surplus of firearms sufficient to equip the peace forces.
