JUBA – A senior South Sudan main armed opposition commander has urged his fighters to report to different cantonment sites in the country’s Torit as part of efforts to implement a 2018 peace agreement signed by the government and opposition groups in 2018.
The government of South Sudan and several rebel movements are implementing the peace agreement which is dubbed as the Revitalized Agreement for the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) that is meant to end the six-year old conflict.
General Alfred Futiyo, the SPLA-IO sector commander in Torit said he has ordered his forces to move to cantonment sites as an important step in the establishment of the country’s first professional national army to replace the current tribalized one.
“Those soldiers in the bush said they need another commander to come and take them to the training camps,” General Tutiyo said in an interview with Radio Tamazuj.
The senior SPLA-IO official appealed to his forces to report to the headquarters and demand for ranks during training, not in the bush.
The process of gathering fighters into military training camps with a view to forming a unified army has started in many parts of the country.
The number of states and transitional security arrangements are the key sticking issues to be addressed before parties form a unity government next month.
