SSDF militia disbands, joins SPLA – Matip

Jan 9, 2006 (JUBA) — South Sudan’s most powerful militia leader announced he was disbanding his organisation Monday during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the country’s landmark north-south peace deal.

Paulino Matip said his South Sudan Defence Force (SSDF) had formally disbanded and joined the ranks of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), formerly the main rebel group and now a partner in the country’s national unity government.

Matip shook hands with SLPM chief and Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir during an anniversary ceremony in Juba, the capital of semi-autonomous southern Sudan.

“Under the peace agreement, which is called the Juba Declaration of Unity and Integration, the two parties have agreed to immediately integrate their forces to form one unified, non-partitioned army under the name of the SPLA,” Kiir said.

“Dear compatriots this is a momentous development which has come at the most auspicious time. It will undoubtedly consolidate peace, not only in the south, but also at the national level,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Matip, a rogue warlord who changed allegiances several times in the course of the 21-year north-south civil war, had traded his military uniform and beret for a suit and cowboy hat matching Kiir’s trademark head gear.

A peace agreement was reached a year ago between the Islamist regime of President Omar al-Beshir and the SPLM, ending Africa’s longest-running civil war, which killed 1.5 million people and displaced four million.

The agreement demanded that the various militia groups in the south disband or join either the Sudanese national army or the SPLM’s armed wing.

The absorption of the thousands-strong SSDF, which controlled oil-rich territories in the south and had mostly fought alongside northern Arab soldiers during the war, ends a period of uncertainty many saw as a threat to peace.

Yet the tone in the SPLM’s anniversary statement was less than jubilant, stressing the many obstacles encountered by the peace agreement in its first year.

“In comparison to what has been expected to be achieved in one year, very little has been accomplished,” it said.

(ST)