S. Sudan defense minister says she ‘don’t have access’ to funds needed to graduate forces

JUBA – South Sudan’s minister of defense Angelina Teny who is also the SPLM-IO Chairperson of National Committee for Security and Defense has said that she don’t have access to the much needed funds that could enable for graduation of the unified forces.

The revitalized peace agreement provides for reunification of the rival opposition and government forces to form a professional national army. However, thousands of soldiers who have been in training since 2019 have not been graduated owing to lack of funds and commitment from the parties to the agreement.

Last week, Mrs. Teny revealed that there were no forces to graduate as soldiers have deserted cantonment sites owing to lack of food.

Speaking in an interview due to be aired on Tuesday, Teny told Juba-based journalist Mathiang Cirilo that the forces could not be graduated because of lack of commitment from President Salva Kiir and do not have access, despite being the minister of defense, to the funds needed for the graduation of the forces.

“I don’t have access to the money,” Teny said when asked how much the government need to graduate the forces. “But I can tell you that there is commitment for the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement at least from our side … as a member of the opposition.”

Teny accused President Kiir of intentionally delaying the graduation of forces, pointing to an assertion by Kiir last October when he told the deputy chairperson of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo that the forces can not be graduated because they don’t have guns.

“What do you mean when you say the forces will not be graduated because they don’t have guns,” she said, referring to President Kiir’s assertion.

In October last year, Daglo told reporters following a meeting with Kiir in Juba that the South Sudanese head of state has told him that the graduation of the unified forces cannot take place because they don’t have guns, blaming the arms embargo imposed by the United Nations in 2018.

“The president explained to us why the graduation of forces is delayed. The president told us that one of the first things delaying the graduation of forces is of course the [lack of] weapons. The forces do not have weapons and of course the state of South Sudan is banned from importing weapons,” Daglo said at the time.

“So this is the main problem that is facing us in the graduation of forces. These forces cannot be graduated because there is no weapons, guns and the country is banned from importing weapons,” he added.