Sheila Ponnie
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. A lawmaker in the national legislative assembly criticised the National Transitional Committee (NTC) for dragging its feet in addressing the needs of the Necessary Unified Forces.
Gai Mayen who represents Yirol East County, Lakes State, said they were wondering why the NTC was unable to take up its duty by ensuring prompt payment of forces.
Mayen alleged the unified forces who graduated in August 2022 have not received any funding or salaries alongside the other organised forces in the country.
“This is a very serious matter and a very big disaster for the implementation of the peace agreement,” he said.
He raised the issue during the RJMEC’s presentation to the MPs on the status of the implementation of the revitalised peace agreement.
The report noted that there was no progress made on the deployment of the graduated unified forces.
It said the forces remained undeployed, commissioned and without allowances since their graduation.
However, the report states that some of the military forces from the SSPDF are receiving salaries, leaving out troops from the SPLA-IO and SSOA who are part of the necessary unified forces.
“We are working to create a cohesive national army that will defend South Sudan’s territorial integrity as well as the lives and property of its people,” Gai said.
“But if the army is still split, with one army being paid and the other not, then that means we don’t have a unified national army in this country.”
“This makes us ask a very serious question about what the NTC is doing under the leadership of Honourable Tut Gatluak,” said the MPs after Gai’s remarks.
“What is the job of NTC if it cannot take up that serious job of doing its part as far as budgeting for the unified forces is concerned?” he posed.
“We need to summon the NTC; in fact, it is not the NTC that we need to summon; we need to summon honourable Tut in this August House to come and answer this,” Gai said.
According to a report published by Eye Radio, troops from the SPLA-IO and SSOA who are part of the Necessary Unified Force have not received a penny since August 2022, while their SSPDF counterparts have been paid.
Colonel Lam Paul Gabriel, the SPLA-IO’s spokesperson, confirmed that their forces were not given their salaries.
He attributed this to the top leadership’s purported unwillingness to send the soldiers into combat.
Col. Lam Paul stated that even though SSOA troops have graduated, they are not paid by the government and are therefore not eligible for benefits.
“Even before they graduated, they had not received any salaries, and as of right now, they are not in the system and cannot receive anything,” Lam was quoted by Eye Radio.
He added that all of the opposition soldiers—including SSOA—were not just SPLA-1O soldiers.
SSPDF Spokesperson Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang explained that the National Transitional Committee made a “simple” financial error, as he confirmed that the opposition forces were not paid.
Lul, however, stated that the command had been made aware of the issue and that a supplementary budget would be presented shortly to allow the opposition forces to receive the same compensation as their SSPDF counterparts.
“Yes, it is true they are not being paid along with their counterparts from the SSPDF. I think it was a very simple financial error. On the graduation, they were not budgeted for by NTC,” said Lul.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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