South Sudan’s Kiir urges unified forces to be neutral
August 30, 2022 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir on Tuesday urged the unified forces to refrain from being members of any political party or ethnic group.
He was speaking at Tuesday’s graduation of 21,000 members of the necessary unified forces to form a unified national army, police and other security forces.
“It is your duty to treat all South Sudanese equally, in justice and equality. Those who will be found to discriminate against some of our people, will be dismissed and face the full force of the law,” Kiir said at the graduation of the forces in Juba.
He added, “The army is there to defend South Sudan from external aggression; the National Security is to collect intelligence to ensure that there is no danger against South Sudan”.
The South Sudanese leader reiterated his commitment to the Rome peace process with the holdout groups, urging them to return and participate in the implementation of the peace agreement signed in September 2018.
“We are committed to the Saint Egidio Rome framework and we encourage all of you to all take it seriously so that all of us participate in building our country together as people of one nation”, said Kiir.
“I call upon hold-out groups to return home so all of us participate in the implementation of the peace process. We do not want rebels in our country. We want to disarm our civilians to combat community violence, eradicate cattle rustling, improve local security, end gender-based sexual violence and inter-communal fighting”, he added.
Meanwhile, Kiir said the peace partners have lost trust in him and members of the coalition because they have missed implementing key benchmarks in the peace process due to some challenges.
“I know some of our partners have lost trust in us because we have not met the deadlines in the agreement. people judge us without taking stock of the underlying reality that has made us delay,” he said, without deliberating on the challenges.
Observers cite a lack of political will to implement the agreement, blaming Kiir for brinksmanship and frustrating efforts in order to continue to consolidate his grip on power, despite repeated calls for him to step down from power and allow the people of South Sudan to choose a leader of their choice.
Of the 21,973 unified forces graduated on Tuesday, 3,308 personnel will be dedicated to providing protection senior government officials; 4,366 into the unified South Sudan National Police Service; 6,315 will be integrated into the unified National Security Service; 1,120 into a unified National Prison Service; 3,575 into the unified National Wildlife Service and 3,289 into unified National Civil Defense Service.
The September 2018 revitalised peace agreement requires the parties to train and graduate a unified force of 83,000 personnel to take charge of security during the transitional period.
Sudan and Uganda are guarantors of South Sudan’s revitalised peace agreement.
(ST)