Unified soldiers at a training center. | 23RD August 2022. | Photo: Lou Nelson/Eye Radio.

Some soldiers at the Rambur training center have asked the Joint Defense Board to clarify the delay of their deployment as they go to bed without food.

The 206 troops comprising Non-Commissioned Officers, soldiers, and senior officers are among the 21,000 peace forces that graduated in Juba on August 30.

However, an officer who chooses to speak on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, says they have gone for months without food and medical supplies.

The military officer says they are surviving on making charcoal.

He is appealing to the Joint Defense Board to send them food and medical supplies as they wait for their deployment.

“What we want from JDB is that we want them to come and tell us when they are going to deploy [us] and what is the delay there that is what we want from them. If the deployment is still, we need food from them.” he said.

According to them, since their graduation till now, they are yet to hear any information on when they are going to be deployed.

“Let them send us a small food even though it is not enough, we want that food to survive. It is not a good life we are in. How can you survive on [selling] charcoal and you are already graduated by the President of the Country?”

However, the National Transitional Committee said in August that it procured food items for the unified forces at various training centers.

Eye Radio’s attempts to get a comment from the Joint Defense Board was not immediately successful.

In a press statement on Christmas Eve, the Minister of Information Michael Makuei Lueth said arrangements are underway to finalize the deployment of the first batch.

“We are working hard to ensure that the agreement is implemented in letter and spirit. We have gone through in 2022 and we have managed to graduate all the unified forces and they are now,’ Minister Makuei said on the State-run television SSBC.

“They are being deployed. We are at present waiting for phase two of the forces that will be entering the training center soon. We are also moving very well in other areas of the implementation of the agreement.”

Chapter two of the revitalized peace agreement requires the cantonment, screening, and training of 83,000 Necessary Unified Forces to safeguard the peace deal.

According to the peace deal, unifying the forces will provide security guarantees for the transitional government of national unity, unlike in 2016 when the forces were divided.