Forces threaten to exit the camp over ‘lack of food’

Some trainee soldiers at Rombur  training centre in Juba County have warned that they could be forced to exit the camp due to lack of food and essential supplies.

Some of the trainees who spoke to a local radio station, Eye Radio, expressed concerns over the delay for the graduation of forces and their unanswered pleas for food and medical supplies.

For instance, Eye Radio quoted a trainee whose identity was concealed saying the Joint Defence Board (JDB) members had failed to honour their pledge and had taken weeks without setting their feet in the camp. This had translated into growing frustrations in the camp with many trainees weighing up options, among them exiting for a better life.

“Since JDB sent a team to Rombur, they came and told us to stay in the training centre and [that] they would send us everything-food, drug, and uniform. Since then up to now, they [have] not come. We don’t know what happened, and what delayed our food and drugs,” the trainee said, as quoted by Eye Radio.

He lamented hunger adding that the camp had been sidelined by those charged with addressing the plight of the trainees.

“The message that we would like to extend to the JDB is that we have spent 14 days without food. [This is] why we are telling you to extend this message to the JDB that our situation is worse.

“They have sent food consignment to Rajaf and Gorom, [but] why is it that they have not brought our ratio? We want you to ask those responsible, these forces are waiting for the graduation but where is their food?” he posed, as Eye Radio reveals.

Promised graduation

In April, the minister for defence and veteran affairs Angelina Teny promised that the forces would be graduated by the end of May 2021. But up to now, no substantive communication has come from the JDB and it still sucked up in uncertainty.

At the time, the ministry of defence acknowledged that the trainees were frustrated by the delay and lack of food and medical supply in the camp. Some trainees vacated cantonment sites with Rajaf being one of the worst hit centres.

Earlier this month, President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Dr Riek Machar urged the National Transition Committee (NTC) to fasttrack the process of graduation of forces and ensure that all the food and medicine are stocked up in the sites.