By Matik Kueth
King News 20th Sept 2024 – The Chairperson of the Ceasefire and Transitional Arrangements Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (CTSAMVM), Maj. Gen. Yitayal Gelaw has appealed to the R-TGoNU to accelerate the deployment of the Necessary Unified Forces (NUF) in order to facilitate a wider deployment footprint in South Sudan.
Speaking on Friday at the CTSAMVM Technical Committee Meeting at the Beijing Hotel in Juba, Gelaw stated that speeding up the deployment of the unified forces could be a concrete sign to the international community that the government places a high priority on security arrangements.
“The unification of forces represents the single most visible example of signatory party cohesion and commitment to peace for the South Sudanese people. It is also a tangible demonstration to the international community that implementing security arrangements remains a priority for the Transitional Government. CTSAMVM again urges that the positive stabilization and confidence-building effects of NUF deployments be reinforced with the necessary resourcing to enable a wider deployment footprint across South Sudan,” Maj. Gen. Gelaw said.
He applauded the transitional government’s decision for extending the transitional period by another two years. According to Gelaw, the action will provide more time to finish putting the security mechanism in place across the nation.
“The Transitional Government has taken the necessary steps to extend the transitional period by two years. CTSAMVM welcomes the consensus that made the decision possible. This will afford additional time to complete the implementation of the transitional security arrangements. Which in turn will set the conditions for hosting a stable electoral process,” he stressed.
He reaffirmed CTSAMVM’s commitment to keep looking at any and all possibilities that preserve its capacity to carry out its mission.
The transitional government has prioritized the deployment of the united forces to ensure that they are deployed across the country to guarantee a single army serves the entire nation.
Since cattle raiding and armed militias have grown to be serious issues in South Sudan, the deployment of unified troops would also pave the way for the disarmament of armed youth in the country to tame insecurity and communal killings.
In 2023, the National Transitional Committee (NTC) kicked off the deployment of the Necessary Unified Forces (NUF) by sending 1,000 of the troops to Upper Nile State. The troops were among the first batch of the 52,000 NUF graduates in August 2022.
On May 4th, 2024, President Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar convened to discuss the commencement of the second phase of the unified forces’ training and decided that the training would begin in two weeks, but challenges have foiled the training from kicking off until now that the government has extended the transitional period to 2026.
According to R-JMEC, the unity government has graduated over 53,000 unified forces so far, but only about 7 percent, or over 4000, have been deployed.
Under the 2018 revitalized peace agreement, the transitional government is supposed to train and deploy 83,000 unified forces, including police, wildlife, prisons, intelligence, and military officers.