Machar rubbishes Kiir’s claim that he has no soldiers

JUBA (SUDANS POST) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has refuted a claim by President Salva Kiir Mayardit last week in which he said that Machar has promoted all his soldiers into commissioned officers.

Kiir was meeting with a high-level delegation of the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) which visited the world’s youngest country’s capital Juba to access the implementation process of the revitalized peace agreement signed by Kiir and Machar in September 2018.

Kiir told the delegation that “the Unified Forces are trained and ready for the graduation, however other opposition forces have promoted all their soldiers to officers leaving no soldiers for the officers to command, and this may delay the graduation of the Unified Forces because it is hindering the formation of command structure.”

But the press secretary in the office of the First Vice President and SPLM-IO Director of Information and Public Relations Puok Both Baluang dismissed the claim by Kiir saying the President was not trustful in his meeting with the African Union delegation.

“The President pointed out that the SPLM-IO has more generals, which is not true. And according to the reports of the JDB they have finished all the screening based on military formation starting from squad upward,” Baluang said in an interview with Eye Radio.

“The graduation of the unified forces is not relying on the arrangements of the screening of the forces only, first we should have agreed on the unified command of these forces. Second, the parliament has to pass the security laws,” the outspoken opposition official added.

“These laws are the one that will regulate the work of these forces, so these are the two factors behind the delay, and lastly, lack of the political will from President Salva Kiir’s party.”