Unified troops at Alel training centre Upper Nile State - credit | courtesy

The Presidency has this evening resolved to graduate the first batch of the unified forces after putting in place the command structure.

President Salva Kiir, who chaired the meeting, First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar and the three Vice Presidents – Dr Wani Igga, Hussein Abdelbagi and Rebbeca Nyandeng, held hours of talks today.

Top generals representing the peace parties including the Defense Minister, Angelina Teny attended the meeting.

The discussion was conducted in the presence of the visiting Deputy Chairperson of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo on Monday and Sudanese Director of Military intelligence, Ahmed Mufaddal.

The two Sudanese leaders represented IGAD as guarantor to the Revitalized Peace Agreement.

In his remarks, Cabinet Affairs Minister, Dr Elia Lumoro said, the Joint Defense Board has so far screened 50,000 joined forces from the different parties.

But the Presidency has directed the body to revisit the cantonment across the country to verify the documented number before their graduation in the coming days.

“The JDB is to verify the report they had presented earlier on”, he said.

The move comes ahead of the planned visit by AU Peace and Security Commission to South Sudan due next week on Tuesday.

The visit will coincide with the marking of the 3rd anniversary of the 2018 peace deal.