SSPDF to complete integration of Gen. Gatwech’s forces in 3 months – spokesman

JUBA – The integration process of the breakaway SPLA-IO forces led by former opposition military chief Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual will be completed just in three months’ time, a spokesman allied to the renegade opposition commander has said today.

In an interview with the Juba-based Juba-Monitor, James Kalany Mamuon, the press secretary of General Simon Gatwech Dual, said a join military committee will be formed and will be responsible for the expeditious process.

The official stressed that as their advance team is already in the capital Juba, the next move for the rebel movement is for their forces to be assembled and then integrated into the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) within three months.

“Our military advance teams had already landed in Juba to follow up the agreement, the next [move] is to assembly the forces. Before they will be re-integrate into SSPDF after three months,” he added.

This comes after a senior South Sudan opposition diplomat allied to Gatwech told Sudans Post from the Sudanese capital Khartoum that the SPLA-IO faction won’t allow its leader Gen. Gatwech to return to Juba without his forces being integrated.

“What has been made very clear to the government in Juba is that General Gatwech will not return to Juba until his forces are integrated into the SSPDF because there are no guarantees for the implementation of the peace agreement,” the diplomat who requested not to be named, said.

The diplomat also revealed that General Gatwech “has asked President Salva Kiir Mayardit to send a team to Khartoum again and finalize on how to allocate political positions to the SPLM-IO Kitgwang faction.”