SSPDF Spokesperson, Major General Lul Ruai visiting the army's cantonment site 25KM outside Juba, along Nimule Highway in 2017.

The graduation of unified forces has been delayed further due to financial constraints, the army spokesperson has said.

The 2018 revitalized peace agreement provides for the unification of the rival forces to form the first professional national army consisting of 83,000 soldiers drawn from the rival South Sudan parties and the SSPDF.

Training of the necessary unified forces started early this year across all training centers and their graduation had been slated for Saturday last week.

However, Major-General Lul Ruai said the graduation was delayed due to logistical challenges.

“We had logistical challenges, the Joint Defense Board had presented a financial request to the National Pre-Transitional Committee to facilitate the graduation of the forces but the mobilization of financial resources has been a little bit difficult,” Lul told Eye Radio on Thursday.

“They are chasing with the bank, as soon as that money gets into the account of either JDB or JSTC, then they will embark on purchasing the minimum requirements for the forces to be graduated.”

The army spokesperson added that graduation of the forces will be done in phases.

“We are going to graduate 3,000 VIP protection force that is the first group. Then they will be followed by the unified national police service at Rejaf, then the rest of the necessary unified forces are going to be graduated simultaneously.”

It is not clear why the peace government could not afford the important ceremony, because the NTC has been receiving millions of dollars from peace partners.

On Tuesday, the ceasefire monitoring body-CTSAMVM warned that the cantonment sites were nearing collapse due to a lack of logistical support for the soldiers.