According to a statement issued by SPLA-IO spokesperson Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, the soldiers deserted the Ghal Achol training centre on July 27 and later reported to Chuil Payam on July 28.
The SPLA-IO says its forces provided safe passage for the group and delivered them to the local authorities in Langkien, the administrative headquarters of Nyirol County, on July 29.
“These individuals were among 40 soldiers who fled the training centre and scattered across surrounding areas seeking a safe route home,” Lam said, noting that most of them were conscripts brought in from Juba and Malakal.
In recent months, several youths arbitrarily arrested during military raids disguised as gang crackdown campaigns were conscripted and sent to either Nasir or Ulang county, where they are sent to the frontline after a short training period.
The consequences have been a tragic loss of lives and a fateful escape for safety in a war-torn Upper Nile region.
The SPLA-IO, a key signatory to the 2018 revitalised peace agreement, maintains that it will continue to assist any government soldier who surrenders or deserts peacefully. The group also instructed its forces in the Nasir and Ulang areas to uphold that directive.
While SPLA-IO commended its troops for what it described as “nationalism and professionalism,” the incident raises concerns about morale and conditions in the unified forces’ training centres—facilities established to prepare troops from rival factions for integration into a single national army under the peace agreement.
Neither the SSPDF nor the government has publicly commented on the alleged desertions. However, sporadic reports of desertions and defections continue to surface, pointing to ongoing logistical, political, and command challenges within the security sector reform process.
The development comes as South Sudan grapples with delays in the implementation of key transitional security arrangements ahead of planned elections.
