First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar addresses security sector reform conference. Dec 7, 2024. (Photo: FVP Press Unit/Facebook).

First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar said proper payment of the armed forces is among key steps in reforming the security sector and could contribute to restoring integrity of the military by ending illegal checkpoints along major roads and waterways.

He made the remarks on Saturday during the conclusion of a three-day Security Sector Reform Conference organized by the Strategic Defense and Security Review Board (SDSR-B) at the parliament hall in Juba.

The conference aims at addressing security challenges and to provide policy guidance and strategy for the reforms and restructuring that would lead to forging a holistic transformation of security sector in the country.

The conference brought together over 500 participants including security mechanisms, representatives from regional and international bodies such as IGAD, UNMISS, R-JMEC, AU, among other organizations.

Dr. Machar said it is important that the organized forces are properly trained and reformed so that they are revered rather than feared by the citizens.

Closing the event on behalf of President Kiir, he acknowledged that roadblocks and illegal checkpoints along major roads and waterways in the country are due to poor payment of armed forces.

“In some countries, when they see you in military uniform, they give you a lot of respect because they know you are the defendant of that particular country,” he said.

“When we implement what we have done here, we will join the same countries. We know they (army) have difficulties currently. You talk of checkpoints because they are not properly paid. Their employment terms are not good.

“But when we do reforms in the military, police, prison, wildlife, civil defense, and national security, they will gain the respect of the public. The population will not fear a soldier or be afraid of the police because they know these are the people responsible for our internal security.”

A researcher from the Danish Institute for International Studies found in a 2021 publication that illegal checkpoints taxes in South Sudan were the most expensive in the world.

Since independence in 2011, the number of checkpoints has nearly doubled and checkpoint taxes have increased by 300%, the study found, adding that these ‘transit taxes’ are mostly illegal.

For two years, the study mapped 319 checkpoints along major trade routes in South Sudan, of which 253 (79%) are roadblocks and 66 (21%) river checkpoints.

The Nimule-Elegu border point –  a major import route for land-locked South Sudan – is currently rocked by truckers strike in which more than 3,000 trucks carrying commercial goods have not entered South Sudan over alleged illegal checkpoints extorting traders along highways.

Some members of the public have blamed the alleged extortion of truck drivers and traders at illegal checkpoints along Juba-Nimule Road and waterways on the one-year delay in salary payment for the armed forces.