Investigative: Food crisis at training camps threatens security arrangements as soldiers desert

JUBA, OCTOBER 17, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – The joint command of South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) in mid-September ordered the Necessary Unified Forces (NUF) to report to training centres for verification before their deployment after their graduation last year. SSPDF spokesman Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang and SPLA-IO spokesman Col. Lam Paul Gabriel had said at the time that food, medicines, and other necessary services for the forces were on the way to the camps.

Sudans Post gained exclusive access to Kaljak and Muom training centers, where the forces were supposed to gather before deployment. What we found is that most of the forces, if not all, have left to search for better living conditions in Bentiu, Rubkona, or Leer towns.

FOOD CRISIS IN CAMPS

At Kaljak, a village outside Rubkona town, few soldiers belonging to the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) who have chosen to stay narrated how they struggle with their families to get food and medical services after failed promises from Juba for food and medical supplies to be delivered.

2^nd Lt. Aliza (not her real name), a female military officer belonging to the SPLA-IO led by First Vice President Riek Machar, said most of her colleagues have deserted the Kaljak training centre and are seeking greener postures in Bentiu where she said there are services such as hospitals and casual working opportunities.

“We don’t have any hospital here and people go for treatment in Bentiu. This place you see now is empty. Only there are the families of the soldiers and even the commanders are not here. In Bentiu town where they are, there is a government hospital supported by aid organizations and also pharmacies where you can buy medicine if you have money and there are also organizations inside UNMISS where you can also go for treatment. These things are not found here so they have chosen to go there,” Aliza said.

She said opposition forces who had first camped near Rubkona were asked to leave the camp by the SSPDF’s fourth infantry division in Rubkona or face war. They first relocated to Dingding where floods then affected the camp one year later displacing them to Kaljak Payam of Rubkona County where food promises by the Joint Defense Board (JDB) in Juba have never been implemented.

“First, Pakur was designated in 2019 as the training centre for the unified forces. But after the defection of General James Koang Chuol in 2020, we were asked to leave because a small portion of the forces here had joined him. So, for us to avoid conflict and suffering of civilians again, we relocated to Dingding and there, the floods came and destroyed everything. We had no choice other than relocating to Kaljak last year and there is considered a very remote village where it is very rare for humanitarian organizations to come there and as you know, most of the civilians of Rubkona County have left the villages and are seeking food and other services inside UNMISS camp in Rubkona and the organizations are working in UNMISS because very body is displaced by war to that camp and the flood,” she said.

“Because of this, the forces don’t get the services because there are no civilians who can help here. Most people then left and some of them are working as traders in Rubkona and Bentiu to get food for themselves and their families because the forces are not getting food as several promises have been made by the government in Juba and they have lost trust in the government because these promises have been there since 2019 when we first came to the camp,” she added.

Kulang, a father of five from the SSOA, currently works as a trader at Bentiu’s Kalibalak Market. He said that he stayed for three years in the training centre and waited after graduation for eight months hoping his rank to be confirmed as a police lieutenant so he can start working and get salary to sustain his family. He said he stills aspire to work as a law enforcement officer, but currently works as a charcoal trader to provide for his children who he said have never set foot to school since 2013. He said his dream of becoming a confirmed police officer depend on the willingness of the political leaders in Juba.

“This is becoming confusing. At first, we were supposed to graduate before the formation of the transitional government. This would have happened by May 2019, and this has taken us five years. Many people have regretted joining this peace process and the matter (reunification of forces) has become confusing and ambiguous for us, and no one in the leadership reveals to us the truth. Will we truly be absorbed into a one united army? This procrastination of the unification of forces has made the soldiers such as me leave the police camp and go to work in the market,” he said, sitting in a broken plastic chair.

Kulang said that there is nothing indicating the deployment of the graduated unified forces as planned by the political leaders, most of whom, he said, are living luxurious life in Juba. “Their children are in overseas and South Sudan to them is a place where they just come and make money. They even go for treatment whenever they have headache outside the country and their children go to the most advanced schools in America, Britain, Egypt, and East Africa. How do we reconcile when they don’t want to provide [equal opportunities] for all of the citizens,” he said.

“As for the lack of food supplies in the camp, which was one of the reasons that led to the soldiers fleeing the site, there are no food supplies, let alone people deserting the camps where they are supposed to be. I currently work in the market to be able to provide for my living needs and those of my dogs (children).

Sudans Post has learned that senior opposition commanders are also suffering from illnesses because they have not been given proper medical services by the leaders in Juba. SPLA-IO senior commander Lt. Gen. Paul Dor Lampuar died in August at the IDP camp in Rubkona. He could not find treatment and had to be rushed to an MSF-run medical facility inside the camp. He died at 81 and many soldiers around him blamed Machar for the failure to flow him abroad for treatment despite having been informed several months before his death about his illness.

FLIGHT OF SOLDIERS TO STATE OF ORIGIN

According to several sources Sudans Post spoke to, many soldiers originating from other South Sudan states left the Kaljak training camp and returned to their home-states due to hanger. Kaljak payam hosts one of the training centers in Unity State for the unified forces. Stephen Phar, a soldier from the SSPDF who returned to his home-state in Jonglei said the forces at Kaljak have deserted the camps and returned to their home-states because the promises of food were not being respected.

He said most SSPDF soldiers, not only from the training centers, but from the SSPDF garrison in Bentiu, have returned to their states and the few have returned to the fourth infantry division in Baar (Rubkona) because of hunger. He said that at some points, many soldiers of the SSPDF left their deployment and returned to Mayom and Bahr el Ghazal region as well as other states because there was no food for them.

He said that there were plans to attack Baar military barrack by the SPLA-IO following the defection of General Tito Biel Wiech in 2022 and that the government garrison was at its weakness point ion years because most SSPDF soldiers had left to their families, and no one was there to defend it had the SPLA-IO attacked it.

“When General Tito Biel Wich defected last year, it was not because of the leadership problem with Riek Machar. But it is the issue of food. He has a lot of children, and nothing has ever been given to those who were in the cantonment sites, not even the generals. Most generals, both from our forces and the opposition forces, have turned into community chiefs who solve problems that are supposed to be solved by community chiefs in order for them to impose fines so that they get something at last,” he added.

Deng, a police lieutenant colonel in the disputed Abyei region, said: “Many of our colleagues left the area due to the conditions in the camp. The situation is really very harsh due to the lack of food, medicine, and good housing.” He stated that he was able to live at Kaljak camp because he was being supported by colleagues from the local communities and managed to stay in the camp until the graduation of the unified forces. He said that uncertainty about their deployment has continued and warned that “the coming days will be more difficult, even though we are supposed to remain in our positions until orders and instructions are issued by the country’s supreme leadership, we don’t thin we will stay further.”

Sudans Post visited the commander of Kaljak Training Centre, Col. Deng Chan Makuac, who is currently in Bentiu town, about the situation of the forces in the training centre. He said the site was hosting 4619 troops from the SSPDF and SPLA-IO. He said most of them camp to Bentiu town for graduation earlier this year but have not returned and said most of them would not return until their ranks are confirmed by the leadership in Juba and until when food and medicine is sent.

Col. Deng said a small group of soldiers is currently in the camp and he has become very tired of delivering promises that are not usually respected by the unified army commander leadership in Juba about food supplies. He said “what is happening has made the soldiers completely lose confidence, and they will just wait until we see with our own eyes the next delegation. He said a government delegation is “ashamed to visit the camp and the food they promised has not arrived in the camp.”

MUOM TRAINING CENTER

Major Michael, not his real name, and four other SPLA-IO officers currently works as fishermen in Leer. They were trained at Muom training centre and told Sudans Post that they are not happy because members of the unified forces from the SSPDF in all parts of Unity State are receiving their salaries and they are not. Michael said when salaries come, the unified forces from the SSPDF would leave the training centers and go to their basis to receive their salaries. They receive their salaries and return to Kaljak and this, he said, raises questions about the motives to keep them in the wait for a long time without food, medicine and salaries.

“When the salaries come, our colleagues from the government side go to their units and are paid with their colleagues there, while we from other SPLA-IO and SSOA are not given salaries. We do not have salaries, and this raises questions why we are the same unified forces and graduated and only awaiting deployment. There is no specific date yet for when the distribution will take place, and the camp commander told them in one of the lectures that the force had graduated in the same previous ranks.”

“Every week, we go for military orientation. They tell us that the boats bringing food and salaries from Juba are on the way in the river (Nile). But these boats have been in the river since 2021 and they are not coming. When will they really arrive. Even recently, they told us to report to the camps that the food and medicines will come in one week and that the boats have left Juba, but it is now more than one month since the boat left,” he said while laughing.

Gatdet, a second lieutenant, said their commanders who he said are living inside Leer town and in Bentiu alongside SSPDF commanders and government ministers have been telling them that there is a committee coming from Juba to look into the issue of ranks confirmation of ranks, but the committee has never shown up.

Sudans Post met Brigadier-General Peter Phar Tai, commander of Muom training centre about the situation of the site. He said his soldiers have gone fishing because it is the only food available to them in the area. He said anytime the verification teams, food and medicine arrive in the centre, then they will come back. He said some have travelled to Leer because it is the only place where there is medicine.

“The situation with respect to food and medicine is very bad. Imagine the distance from here to Leer town for a sick person to be taken there for treatment in hospitals run by [humanitarian] organizations and sometimes when the sick soldier arrives there, they will not find the medicine for the treatment of that person’s sickness. We have called [for the government] to bring medicines to the training centres,” he said.

ARMY COMMAND IN JUBA

When contacted by Sudans Post, the SPLA-IO spokesman Col. Lam Paul Gabriel who is also one of the spokesmen of the joint army command in Juba said food has been delivered to some training centers in the Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal regions. He said that calls for the unified forces to report back to the training centres have not been respected because they have lost trust in the leadership of the army.

“The foods were already delivered to training centres in Equatoria region and in Bar el Ghazal region where we made that press statement released by myself and Lul Ruai calling for the forces to be able to go to the training centres so that they are screened and the deployment take place,” he said.

“But still that call up to today the screening team didn’t go, I don’t know what happened, but I can be very sincere that the foods were delivered to the training centres already in Equatoria and Bar el Ghazal but in Upper Nile we are still waiting for the boats so that they are able to be taken to training centres. Others turned up and others didn’t. The national security who were supposed to be in Gutmakur didn’t go because in Gutmakur we found out that the SSPDF has assembled their forces there so is a kind of a mess a little bit,” he added.

“I cannot tell that everybody reported to the training centres putting in mind also knowing the way things happening at the first, there are several calls for them to go to training centres things might happen but at the end due to some reasons you find that those things are not happening, and this is discouraging the soldiers,” he continued.

Sudans Post was unable to reach SSPDF spokesman Lul Ruai Koang as several calls rang no answered.