Unified forces at Masna Bira training center in Wau in January 2020 | Credit | Deng Dimo/Eye Radio

A number of expectant and lactating soldiers are living in harsh conditions at the cantonment sites across the country, the army spokesperson has said.

It’s not clear how many pregnant and lactating soldiers are at the cantonment and training camps.

But the SSPDF assessment was conducted in major military sites in greater Bahr el Ghazal region.

According to Maj.-Gen. Lul Ruai, there are over 5,000-strong force in Massna Beera in Wau, comprising of SSPDF, SPLA-IO and SSOA.

He said in Mapel, there are over 2,300 soldiers, and about 1,300 more have been registered in Panthiet General Training center in Aweil state.

Maj.-Gen. Ruai said among them are pregnant and lactating soldiers who are yet to be screened.

He made the remarks in Wau town on Thursday during an assessment visit of the Joint Defense Board to the areas.

“A pregnant woman is not fit for training, as well as a lactating mother. These fighters should not have been brought to this training center,” the military spokesperson said.

“The problems we discovered include lack of shelter at all the training centers, lack of enough clean drinking water, they also do not have training gears as well as uniforms for their respective units.”

Training of the unified forces started early this month in some training centers.

But some soldiers have died at the training centers due to limited supplies such as medicines, and hard living conditions.