S. Sudan’s unarmed peace forces arrive in Malakal facing challenges

JUBA – South Sudan’s peace forces, who were deployed to Upper Nile state last week, on Wednesday morning arrived in the state capital Malakal, SPLA-IO spokesman Col. Lam Paul Gabriel has confirmed.

The 750-strong force, composed of soldiers from the three main signatories to the revitalized peace agreement – SSPDF, SPLA-IO, and SSOA – were dispatched unarmed from the capital Juba to Tonja in Upper Nile state on Wednesday last week.

Speaking to Sudans Post on Thursday, Col. Lam said the forces are awaiting directives from the unified army command in Juba and warned that delay in their deployment to designated areas may result in significant challenges for the forces.

“They are already in Upper Nile. They reached Malakal yesterday morning. We are waiting for further directives from the CDF [Chief of Defense Forces] and the leadership in Juba,” he said.

“We wait for the committee to be able to come to the command [headquarters] in Juba and then they let us know what to do,” he added.

Col. Lam estimated that the directives would arrive within a week, but cautioned that the longer the forces remain in Malakal, the more challenges they will face.

“I believe it will never take long because the longer they take in one place the more the challenges could start facing so,” he said.

“There are some serious conditions involved, one is the operation costs, two is the armament of the soldiers themselves, three is availing the food for them to be able to (reach) their places of deployment. This is because there is a challenge of accessibility [in Upper Nile state,” he added.

The senior military official further disclosed that Juba is expecting additional forces to arrive soon from Unity State, Upper Nile, and Bahr el Ghazal before deployment.

“There is also ready 1000 soldiers ready in Aliel training center (in Upper Nile). They are to be transported to Juba and we also have those one in Bahr el Ghazal and there is other company in Muom (in Leer) which within next week will be in Juba,” he said.

The 750 troops are the first to be deployed from among the 53,000 Necessary Unified Forces (NUF) who graduated last year.