Parties hammer historic army deal

For the first time in nearly three years of disagreement, the principal leaders of the September 2018 revitalised peace agreement have agreed on the army unification command.

This will pave the way for the graduation of more than 50, 000 of the first batches of the necessary unified forces and enable the second batch to begin training as time draws to an end with much still outstanding.

“Today, we have reached peace,” Tut Gatluak, the Presidential Security Advisor, said.

 “Today here in Juba, we have completed all the security arrangements for the current forces at training centres and for the second batch.

“After one week from today, we will come up with the timetable, including for the graduation of forces at training centres and for the second batch to start the training,’’ Mr. Gatluak said.

He added, “We thank the government of Sudan, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, and the Deputy Chairperson of the Sudan Sovereign Council for supporting the peace implementation in South Sudan.” Today, we have a unified army command in all the organised forces in the country, “

Deadlock broken

Speaking on behalf of the SPLM/A-IO, Martin Obocha, Minister of Mining, said the deal was a ‘milestone’ on Chapter Two of the security arrangement that will ultimately bring lasting peace to the country.

“Today we have moved forward to reach an understanding of how we shall implement Chapter Two of the agreement,” Mr. Obocha said,” The people of South Sudan are yearning for peace. Today we have reached a milestone. We have agreed and we have signed an understanding that we shall be moving forward,” 

The agreement has come as the country was experiencing a renewed political crisis, threatening the overall peace agreement due to a lack of consensus on the structure of the army joint command, coupled with complex challenges, including financial and logistical constraints the government has been saying, compounded by a lack of weapons.

Last week, the First Vice President and Leader of the main armed opposition – Sudan People’s Liberating Movement/Army (SPLM/A-IO) objected to President Salva Kiir’s recent joint armed command order that gave lion’s share to the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (PDF).

Both the SPLM-IG and SPLM-IO resolved to stalemate on the unified paving way for the graduation of the long-overdue peace provision that nearly crippled the already partially implemented deal in a meeting attended by the guarantor, Sudan, yesterday.