Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The unification of police forces in the greater Equatoria region has hit an iceberg of challenges, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) has said.
Last year, the committee formed by the Joint Defence Board (JDB) announced that the process of screening the unifying forces would take only two weeks. However, it has taken more than a month for the team in greater Equatoria to complete the screening.
In a phone interview with The City Review on Tuesday, Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, the SPLA-IO military spokesperson who is also a member of the security team formed by the JDB, said all the unified forces in the Equatoria region had all been screened.
He said the unification process for the army and national security had already been completed and that the team was working on a report to be submitted to the JDB to determine the next steps.
Col Lam said that after the screening, most of the police forces chose to return home rather than waiting for the unification process to begin. He said their low turnout for the unification process has made it difficult for the team to complete the process on time.
“For police, we are still waiting for them to finalise their unification process. They have already finished the screening, but unification is becoming a challenge, ” Col Lam stressed. He added: “Now we have the issue of them coming back because they are not coming in the right number, and yet we already know they are screened.”
“So this is the challenge, because if we decide to just close the unification process, then the majority of them will stay for a very long time, and they will also be closed out,” he added.
However, Col. Lam did not disclose how many forces in the Greater Equatoria region’s training centres have been screened. He said the details would be released once all the reports have been collected and presented to the JDB.
The screening and unification of forces across the country have so far taken more than two years due to a lack of resources, the government reveals. However, many soldiers who were sent to training facilities have reportedly deserted due to some issues, including the lack of food, medical supplies, and shelter for the men stationed there.
Some died as a result of a lack of medical care at the training sites. The international community has repeatedly voiced concern about the delay in screening, unifying, and graduating the forces as part of the implementing revitalised agreement’s chapter 2.
In 2019, the parties extended the pre-transitional period by an additional six months to enable the execution of the critical pending tasks, which was again extended in 2020 before the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity was finally formed.
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