EDITORIAL: What next after the screening of forces?
In December last year, the Joint Defence Board—a body tasked with overseeing the training and graduation of the Necessary Unified Forces (NUF)— dispatched the Joint Screening and Reorganisation teams to three regions: The Upper Nile, Bahr-el-Ghazal, and Equatoria region.
According to the 2018 revitalised peace agreement, South Sudan is supposed to graduate 83,000 unified forces drawn from various parties to take charge of security over the period of transition.
However, after two weeks, the body announced that it had completed the screening of the forces in all three regions across the country.
The screening and reorganisation of forces was a prerequisite for the graduation of the Necessary Unified Forces, but since the completion of the screening of forces last month, nothing new has been heard from the Joint Defence Board. The media and the public are completely ignorant about what is going on and how far the process of the graduation of Necessary Unified Forces has reached.
However, the public does understand that the process has been facing many challenges, such as the funding gap that prevented the forces from being graduated. But after the screening, the leaders need to speed up the arrangements for the graduation of forces so that they do not quit the training sites for the second time.
It was not easy for most trainees to return for the screening exercise because most of them had deserted the camps due to the poor conditions at the training camps. They were also engaged in other productive activities to support their families. Again recently, during its monthly meeting in Juba, CTASMVM raised serious concerns about the dire conditions at the cantonment sites, blaming them for forcing some trainees to flee from the sites.
Before the screening, there were numerous reports of troops abandoning their posts in garrisons and training centres because of a lack of food and basic supplies. This can only be avoided this time if the process of graduation of the armed forces is not delayed.
Nevertheless, what seems to be one of the major pending tasks is for the presidency to agree on a unified command of the forces, which is very necessary for the graduation to take place.
This seems to be a very contentious issue that the SPLM-IG and the leaders of the armed opposition to the peace agreement need to agree upon through a compromise. The leaders need to compromise on the ratio sharing in the percentage of the unified command to pave ways for the graduation of the forces.
The unification of forces is one of the most important parts of the revitalised peace agreement that has not been implemented. So, it is necessary to unite the military into one national army because their unification speaks value for lasting and sustainable peace in South Sudan. It is the only hope to make the agreement successful, and it is where the citizens’ dream of development and prosperity depends on. You cannot talk of development if the military is not united. The existence of different military commands pose a serious threat to the sustainability of peace in the country.
