Opposition forces boycotting deployment with sticks – spokesman.

JUBA, OCTOBER 21, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – Forces belonging to South Sudan’s main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) led by First Vice President Riek Machar are against being deployed with sticks, the group’s spokesman Col. Lam Paul Gabriel says.

The ruling SPLM faction under President Salva Kiir has previously called for lifting of the arms embargo imposed in mid-2018. The Kiir-led government blames the international measure for lack of weapons which it says can be used to deploy the Necessary Unified Forces (NUF).

This narrative has been rejected by the United States, one of the largest donors of South Sudan’s peace process, and local opposition groups such as the SPLM-IO. Their argument is that the country has more weapons than the forces and the entire population.

Speaking to Sudans Post on Wednesday, Col. Lam said the forces are being called to report to cantonment site ahead of the deployment announced by the government last month but are reluctant to do so because they don’t want to be deployed by sticks.

“Like when you call them today to go and you hear that we are going to be deployed with the sticks, now who would want to be deployed with the stick so at the end we look at the situation our politicians don’t want forces to be deployed,” he said.

“The politicians are are the ones discouraging these soldiers. That is why today we don’t have professional soldiers. We instead have rebel army or party army in place in our country and that’s very unfortunate,” he added.

The senior SPLA-IO army officer expressed his own strong disapproval of the notion for deployment of the forces with sticks, saying most people have turned down the call for them to report to training centres because of the government plan.

“Yes, others have turned up and others didn’t. The national security who was supposed to be in Gutmakur they didn’t go because in Gutmakur we found out that the SSPDF has assemble their forces there so is a kind of a mas a little bit,” he said.

“I cannot tell that everybody reported to the training centres putting in mind also knowing the way things happening at 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 added.

The comments by the SPLA-IO spokesman comes after an investigation by Sudans Post found that most training centres in Unity State have been deserted by the peace soldiers due to lack of food and medicines. Soldiers who spoke to Sudans Post said they have chosen to work as traders to provide for their families.