General Garang Ayii Akol, Co-Chair of the Joint Defense Board speaks to Eye Radio in an inclusive interview at Bilpam. | 9th June 2022 | Credit: Alhadi Hawari

The Co-Chair of Joint Defense Board has revealed that the graduation of more than 50,000 unified forces will take place at the end of this month.

General Garang Ayii Akol told Eye Radio, a Joint Defense Mechanism meeting scheduled for Monday will decide on the exact date of the graduation.

General Ayii attributes the delays in the graduation of forces to insufficient resources.

He said the JDB is working on a timetable for graduation of the forces in Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile and Equatoria region.

“According to the matrix, the graduation of the forces has already been decided and it will be at the end of June. We are working on that and also the leadership of JDB and JTAC to graduate the forces on the respective date,” Gen. Akol told Eye Radio.

The 2018 revitalized peace deal expects the unity government to graduate 83,000 unified forces drawn from the various parties to take charge of security during the ongoing transitional period.

Tens of thousands of forces have been assembled and trained at various cantonment sites and training centers across the country since 2020.

Dozens of trainees are reported to have died of starvation and sickness in cantonment and training sites as they awaited the graduation that never comes.

The government also made a number of failed pledges to graduate the forces, but factors such as insufficient funding, lack of political will among the peace parties, the recently imposed arms embargo and allegations of many ranks in the opposition forces are said to be complicating the efforts.

However, the trainees including members of the army, police, wildlife service, prison service as well as fire brigade and related security apparatus are now expected to graduate this month.

General Garang Ayii Akol who is also Commander for Riverine units and assistant Chief of Defense Forces of SSPDF told Eye Radio, the joint defense body will decide on the graduation timetable next.

“The percentages are very clear and those people have already taken their duties in their offices and they working very well, and this is a good step in chapter two of the security arrangements,

“On Monday will be a decision on how is it going to be, like which training to be graduated first and second or in Bahr El ghazal, Upper Nile and Equatoria region,” said Ayii.

Previously, the president directed the Joint Defense Board, Joint Transitional Security Committee, and the Joint Military Ceasefire Commission to commence their work on graduation of the unified forces as soon as possible.

About 53,000 forces are expected to graduate from the training camps.

Last month, the UN mission in South Sudan and the International Community have reiterated the call for the expeditious graduation of the unified forces to help fill security gaps at the local level.