SPLA deploys troops in Khartoum

June 20, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudan People’s Liberation Army has finished deploying its brigade in Khartoum, as stipulated in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

At least 320 SPLA soldiers arrived in Khartoum from Kassala on Saturday and were deployed at the republican guard garrison at Soba Aradi area, the Sudan Radio Service (SRS) reported.

There are now a total of 1,500 SPLA soldiers deployed in different areas of Khartoum as stipulated in the CPA.

The chairman of the Joint Defense Board Technical Committee, Major-General Elias Waya Nypoch, said some of the troops will be deployed in Soba Aradhi, fifteen kilometres south of Khartoum. He said that the rest will be deployed in the Jebel Aulia IDP camp, forty kilometres south of Khartoum.

Ministers, members of the National Assembly, SPLM and the ruling National Congress Party officials, as well as ordinary citizens received the troops on arrival.

Meanwhile, the SPLA commander in charge of the entering brigade urged southern Sudanese internally displaced persons in Khartoum to return to their homes to develop their areas.

Lieutenant Colonel Bullen Bol Majak told IDP’s in Soba on Saturday that since peace has come there is no need to continue living in IDP camps.

“Many people ran away from the country because of war but now peace has come. All the people should go back to their areas so that development goes ahead”, said Colonel Majak.

The officer said that the SPLA soldiers are in Khartoum to defend the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

(ST/SRS)