Up to the 10^th of October, the UPDF forces will be out of the country, a South Sudan senior military leader has said.

Uganda will start withdrawing its forces from South Sudan next week, according to the SPLA Deputy Chief-of- Staff for Logistics and head of the government delegation to the recent IGAD Security Workshop in Addis Ababa, Lt. General Ruben Malek.

The Uganda Peoples Defense Forces, UPDF troops, were deployed in Juba and other hot spot areas of the country in December 2013, when the conflict broke out.

Lt. Gen Malek says this was resolved during the discussions last week between generals from both the government and the opposition sides, as part of the implementation of the peace agreement.

According to the agreement, all foreign forces allied to both the government and the opposition sides are supposed to leave the country within 45 days after the signing of the peace agreement.

Lt. General Malek says the UPDF troops will start withdrawing on the 27^th of this month.

“The timeline of their withdrawal is stated between 27^th, up to 10^th of October,” he said.

However, he says the UPDF forces deployed in Western Equatoria state will not be removed, because they are under a separate arrangement.

“The ones in Western Equatoria are not affected by this agreement; it’s a quadruple arrangement connecting Central Africa Republic, South Sudan, Uganda and Congo plus the American US Forces,” Lt. General Malek said.

“These are in pursuit of the Regional Alliance Strategic Agreement to pursue the LRA”

The UPDF forces deployed in Western Equatoria are based in Nzara, a few Kilometers from Yambio Town.