Our forces will graduate even with sticks – Kiir

President Salva Kiir has affirmed that the unified forces in the training centres will be graduated despite challenges faced by the parties to the 2018 peace agreement.

President Kiir blamed the arms embargo imposed on the government of South Sudan by the UN Security Council to bar procurement of guns on the logistical hitches affecting the exercise.

 He said the restrictions had made it difficult to graduate the new peace force because the unity government could not hasten the implementation of the security arrangement.

He said three challenges are impeding the implementation of the security arrangement, but the two internal challenges can be resolved by the parties, except for that of the arms embargo.

“We have repeatedly informed the UN system about the negative impact this has on the implementation of chapter two of the agreement, and all we have received in return are more conditions that do not recognise progress achieved so far,” said Kiir.

Plan B                     

“Hence, in the distance, we will have no option other than to graduate these forces with sticks when the other two challenges are resolved, ” he added.

During his meeting with the delegation of the UN Security Council in Juba earlier this month, Kiir pointed fingers at the First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar, for the failure to align the ranks of his officers, which he said has delayed the graduation process.

At the closing of the fifth Governors’ Forum on Monday, Kiir revealed that Dr Machar and Vice President Hussein Abdelbaggi had both asked for more time to reorganise the ranks of their officers arguing that the list they presented was for the senior officers.

“Conversationally, army formation starts at the lowest level, from scout to division and above. From this structural setup, it follows the rank of commission officers, which must correspond with the levels of army units they are deployed to lead, ” the President argued.

He also attributed the delay to what he termed as a diversion of views from the command structure of the unified army, which does not align with the provisions of the agreement, saying the parties have failed to reach a consensus on the percentage of the unified forces.

 “There are those saying that 45 per cent of the unified army we allocate it to other parties while the government takes the remaining 55 per cent,” he said.

This comes nearly a month after Dr Machar emphasised the importance of security laws, arguing that they are a prerequisite to the graduation of forces. Machar said this while addressing mourners at Freedom Hall during the funeral of the former speaker of the Council of States, Joseph Bol Chan.

“If you are going to have unified forces, military, police, national security, prison, wildlife, civil defence, and state police,” he noted. 

“To have these organs, you need the legislature, and you need laws for them. But when we received the bills for these security organs, we passed them, and they are probably awaiting us. The national legislature now, ” added the First Vice President,