Opinion | How long is forest going to pay soldiers?

By Malek Arol Dhieu

OPINION, JNAUARY 20^TH 2023 (SUDANS POST) – When an SSPDF soldier sees the salary delaying and the demands in his house are growing, he picks an axe and goes to a nearby forest to cut down trees for charcoal. The charcoal then caters for upkeeps as he expects to earn his salary next month.

Unfortunately, next month comes and the salary still goes missing. What else can he do for the living? He again picks his axe and goes to the forest to cut down trees for charcoal. As laborious as making charcoal, other soldiers prefer robbing to going to forest for charcoal. Whether or not this is the genesis of unknown gunmanism, no one knows and that is none of my business.

As long as the salary goes missing, the SSPDF soldier lives on charcoal. But though the salary were given on monthly basis, it would still not cater for the needs of the soldier himself and his growing family. This again forces the soldier to make ‘cutting trees for charcoal’ a conditional job. The survival of soldiers on charcoal is a condition creating another condition in future.

As trees are cut down and no replacement done, the deforestation moves closer and closer, wanting to take over. Unless God intervenes, but if He does not, then there is going to be a major problem. Climate change will squeeze South Sudanese from that end and economic crisis from this end. This is going to make people live at the edge of life.

Now that the SSPDF soldiers get their salaries from Gen. Forest or whatever military rank it has, why are they deployed to protect the citizens and some deployed as guards instead of deploying them to protect animals in the forests? Police, National Security, Wild life, Prison service and Fire Brigade are far much better than South Sudan People’s Defense Force.

If one reflects on how SPLA, now SSPDF, fought during the liberation struggles, one would shed tears of dismay because they deserve to get compensated for the price they paid just to have a country of our own. To shed more tears, ask an SPLA soldier about how they fought with Arabs. You will shed tears until you shed tears no more! Something is not clear with how the national army is administered. It looks so shameful for the defense force to be left to get its salary from making charcoal.

A soldier could not make the both ends meet. He battles with the administration of the army over the salary and other welfare funds, but the biggest battle takes place in his own house where his wife (sometimes wives, why not?) brings on his table a list of demands to be met without failure. Any failure leads to a ten-lettered word known as “separation”.

However, what is more annoying is the fact that there are mere soldiers who are unassigned, but are better off, and news has it that they are those related to assigned officers. But when deployment comes, it is unfortunately the hungered ones who are taken, making their suffering go beyond description. South Sudan People’s Defense Force should be well taken care of, trained adequately, nationalized, equipped and organized to match with that of Uganda, Kenya, DRC, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

A token of appreciation goes to all forests of South Sudan for having been paying the soldiers enough salary. If one of the soldiers becomes, by the grace of God, a leader later, he will work hard to increase and pay the salary on monthly basis while planting trees in honor of those heroic trees cut down for charcoal.

The author is a medical student, University of Juba. He can be reached at malengaroldit@gmail.com.

---

The views expressed in the ‘OPINIONS & ANALYSIS’ section of Sudans Post are solely the opinions of the writers. The veracity of any claims made are the responsibility of the author not this website. If you want to submit an opinion piece or an analysis please email us here.