Necessary Unified Forces. (Photo credit: unknown).

The United Nations Panel of Experts on South Sudan says the recent graduation of peace soldiers with sticks in the country is a move to protest the arms embargo and not a genuine lack of arms.

The UN Security Council banned the sale of firearms to South Sudan in July 2018, in response to hostilities and peace agreement violations.

The embargo has been renewed annually – upon request of human rights groups and the international community.

In its 70-page letter addressed to the President of the Security Council in New York, the panel cited some government officials as saying that the gesture implied an inability to arm the forces.

But the SSPDF Spokesperson Major General Lul Ruai Koang dismissed the UN letter, saying it lacks evidence.

Speaking to Eye Radio on Saturday, General Lul challenged the Panel to provide a proof that the government indeed has arms but refuses to equip the peace soldiers.

“Let UN experts provide proof that we had imported weapons after the arms embargo was imposed on South Sudan. Let them provide good evidence indicating when we imported arms, the type, the quantity, the company that supplied the arms, and from which country,” Lul said.

“Once they provide that evidence, then their accusation will hold water; that yes, we have arms, but we are refusing to arm the necessary unified forces.”

Thousands of the necessary unified forces have graduated from different cantonment sites in the country, but with either toy guns made of sticks or fake guns.

This follows President Salva Kiir’s November 2021 announcement that the government will graduate the necessary unified forces without guns due to the arms embargo.

The recently concluded 6th Governors’ Forum in Juba also resolved to call on the international community to lift the arms embargo imposed on the country.

The forum said the UN Security Council must cancel the arms embargo to enable the government to procure arms for the national army.

On his part, the army spokesperson says the embargo should be lifted to enable the “sovereign” nation to protect its people and territories.

“We have been explaining in all the forums that it is counterproductive for a sovereign state to be given an arms embargo, because we have the responsibility to provide arms to the security forces so that they protect South Sudanese,” Lul told Eye Radio.

So far, the unity government has graduated 49,300 security forces in the Equatoria, Bahr el Ghazal and parts of the Upper Nile region.

The latest was the November 21 graduation of at least 9,500 members of the necessary unified forces in Malakal town of Upper Nile state.

Thousands are awaiting graduation in Unity State – as the last batch of the first phase of the graduation targeting at least 53,000 officers.

The UN Panel, in its report to the Security Council, further presumes that the graduation with toy guns reflects an intention to keep the integrated forces weak relative to their counterparts in the SSPDF and other security services.

It also says there is no substantial deployment plan for the graduated forces and that many soldiers were simply ordered to return to their communities after graduation.

But Lul dismissed the assertion, saying the Joint Defence Board is only waiting for the last batch of the unified forces to graduate in Unity State – before they embark on the deployment process.