Soldiers parade at Luri Training Center at the deployment event. November 15, 2023. (Charles Wote).

150 opposition forces have been transported from Malakal, Upper Nile to the Capital City Juba by river for the unification process, according to SPLA-IO spokesperson Colonel Lam.

110 of the soldiers are from SPLM-IO and forty are from the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA).

“One of the boats that took the first batch of the unified force that was deployed to Malakal, on its way back to Juba, brought 150 opposition forces from Muom cantonment site, purely opposition forces,” said Col. Gabriel.

“110 Sudanese People Liberation Movement–In Opposition and 40 South Sudan Opposition Alliance soldiers,  Colonel Lam told Eye-Radio in an exclusive interview Tuesday.

Colonel says the forces have camped at the Luri training site waiting for an SSPDF battalion from Malakal, Upper Nile state.

He also says after the combatants are unified, they will be deployed to defend this country and its people.

“We brought them here in Juba as I speak, they’re in the Luri training site, waiting to be unified with their counterpart the South Sudan People Defend Forces that will be coming from Malakal so that they’re deployed to defend this country and its people,” he added.

The unification of forces is key to the 2018 peace deal that ended a five-year conflict in which nearly 400,000 people died.