South Sudan ready to graduate first batch of unified forces

Nhial Deng Nhial (File Image)

JUBA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's former warring parties have agreed to graduate the first batch of unified forces despite a lack of enough equipment for their graduation.

Nhial Deng Nhial, Minister of Presidential Affairs said on Tuesday that President Salva Kiir and his five deputies have agreed to speed up the graduation of the first batch of soldiers who had been under training since late 2019.

He disclosed that the parties agreed to speed up the unification of the top echelons of the army command to pave way for the integration process of all forces into a single national army under one unified command.

According to the 2018 revitalized peace deal, the nation is supposed to train and graduate a unified force of 83,000 personnel to take charge of security during the transitional period until 2023 when elections are held.

The unification of the army has been delayed amid missed deadlines.

The process has also been hampered by the economic hardship in the country which has left the government with a limited resource envelope caused by the more than six years of conflict which broke out in December 2013.

Some soldiers have in the past been abandoning the training centers due to lack of food, medicines, and safe clean water.