![President Salva Kiir Mayardit (L) and his now deputy Dr. Riek Machar Teny exchanging documents following the signing of a ceasefire agreement in 2014 in Addis Ababa. [Photo by REUTERS]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/74761499_tv022199466.jpg?ssl=1)
“The bills are in parliament and they are being debated, the command structure is already unified, and by the end of this month, the graduation of unified forces will take place,” Lam told reporters during a press conference in Friday in Juba.
According to the 2018 revitalized peace deal, the nation is supposed to train and graduate a unified force of 83,000 personnel to take charge of security during the transitional period until 2023 when elections are held.
The unification of the army has been delayed amid missed deadlines.
The process has also been hampered by the economic hardship in the country which has left the government with a limited resource envelope caused by the more than six years of conflict which broke out in December 2013.
Some soldiers have in the past been abandoning the training centers due to a lack of food, medicines, and safe clean water.
Opposition members of the government have argued that President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s group, the SPLM-IG, is not willing to graduate the forces and that there is enough money in the country that could be used for the security arrangements.
Kiir’s side said on several occasions that there are no guns to graduate the first batch of 53,000, blaming the arms embargo imposed on the country in 2018 by the United Nations prior to the signing of the peace deal a few months later.
