South Sudan president integrates rival’s officers into unified army

Published:April14,2022

South Sudan President Salva Kiir (L) and Vice President Riek Machar. (AP)

South Sudan’s government has announced the creation of a unified armed forces command, implementing a key provision of the 2018 peace deal that observers hope will ease the country’s recovery from years of war.

The country has struggled to draw a line under a five-year civil war between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, that left nearly 400,000 dead before the pair agreed to a truce in 2018.

Since then, frequent explosions of violence have raised fears of a return to full-blown conflict, as the two sides remained deadlocked over major issues including the unification of their forces –– a key provision of the 2018 pact.

But earlier this month, the duo sealed a deal on the division of top positions within the unified structure, agreeing to a 60-40 distribution in favour of Kiir’s side of leadership posts in the army, police and national security forces.

Late on Tuesday, the national broadcaster SSBC read out a series of presidential decrees announcing Kiir’s decision to replace senior officials in the military, police and security services with members of Machar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition.

The decrees “come into force on the date (April 12, 2022) of its signature by the President,” the broadcaster said.

Under the terms of the deal signed on April 3, the graduation of the unified forces should be completed within two months.

Mr Machar’s military spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said the move would help stop the continuing ceasefire violations in different parts of the country.

“The SPLA-IO welcomes the decision. It is really long-awaited. We just hope that this will pave a way forward to the completion of the unification process.”

cgtn.com