Amid claims from residents about mass recruitment and training in Aweil, the capital of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, Sudans Post embarked on a trip to find out the reality. The revelation from this trip, though somewhat anticipated considering the historical records of the South Sudan parties, were nonetheless alarming.
SSPDF is actively training thousands of troops – precisely 3018 – across two locations in the state. One is the Mathiang military garrison situated near the Northern Bahr el Ghazal University. The other is the SSPDF’s 3rd Infantry Division at Wunyiik, where several civilians, accused of affiliations with rebel leader Paul Malong Awan, are detained without official charges.
Sudans Post had the opportunity to witness the morning regimental routine, observing the recruits engaging in rigorous running exercises as part of their morning training sessions within the confines of Mathiang. This physical training regimen stands as evidence that the SSPDF is actively recruiting and training new personnel, contradicting the terms of the peace agreement.
This contradiction raises concerns about the violation of the ceasefire agreements and undermines the intended peace efforts in South Sudan.
Through testimonies from eyewitnesses, victims, and government officials, our investigation uncovered a systematic recruitment practice by the SSPDF. This practice often involved threats and intimidation, forcing young men into the army.
Community leaders, pressurized by the SSPDF, have been coerced into providing young men for recruitment, facing fines of two cows for each individual who refuses to comply.
FORCED RECRUITMENT
Bol Deng, a 35-year-old resident of Aweil town (pseudonym used for anonymity), recounted his distressing ordeal of being coerced into joining the SSPDF in August 2023. Deng described an encounter with a group of armed civilians who informed him of his selection for army duty. His refusal was met with physical assault and threats of arrest.
“I pleaded with them that I had no desire to join the army, but they refused to listen,” Deng recalled. “They beat me and threatened to arrest me if I didn’t go with them.”
Deng’s story is not an isolated incident. Several other young men from Aweil have emerged with similar accounts of forced recruitment. One individual, requesting anonymity, revealed being coerced into joining the SSPDF after his father faced threats of arrest.
“The soldiers arrived at my home and ordered me to join the army,” the individual recounted. “My refusal was met with threats to arrest my father. I couldn’t bear to see my father arrested, so I agreed to join.”
ECONOMIC HARDSHIP AND ETHNIC PATRIOTISM
Amidst the economic hardship that plagues South Sudan, some young men said they have chosen to join the SSPDF voluntarily, hoping for the promise of a decent salary to support their families. Bol Deng, while initially reluctant, ultimately joined the army out of economic necessity. This, he said, is after the increase of the army salaries by 400 percent.
“I am joining this army because this is our country, the Republic of South Sudan,” Deng said. “I am being influenced by what is happening in the country. If it comes to defending it, then no matter what it takes for us to defend our mother land. Because also we are going to be given a good salary that you can use to buy food for your family.
Another young man said when refused to be named at all for the same fear of reprisal said: “I am sorry to express it to you that things are out of hand in my household. I have been a peasant for years, so I heard that the government is going to pay the military personnel better wages, that is why I also took a decision to join the army. The gov government here also made a promise that anyone who joins the army will be paid a good salary.”
Adut Akwuar, a female sergeant who was working as a tea vendor at Aweil market before the recruitment, said: “The army is the ultimate choice because their payment is going to be increased and that’s the reason that I joined it because there is no other business.”
Other young men, driven by a sense of ethnic patriotism and a desire to protect the government from the country’s many rebellions, have also voluntarily joined the SSPDF. Agany, a recruit, expressed his motivation to join the army in these terms:
“Our grandfathers and mothers fought the enemies for a reasonable course and there is a need to fight any enemy attacking our territory. Therefore, the reason for joining this new recruitment is to see that the rebellions being waged against our country and government is being stopped.”
ARBITRARY DETENTIONS SUPPRESSING DISSENT
The actions of the SSPDF extend far beyond forced recruitment, encompassing the arbitrary detention of individuals considered disloyal to the government. Samuel Garang Dut, a prominent civil society activist, endured a year-long imprisonment based on unsubstantiated allegations linking him to Malong’s faction.
Dut, along with 105 others, was apprehended in August 2022. While most detainees were eventually released, Dut remained incarcerated due to his activism, drawing the ire of the Northern Bahr el Ghazal authorities.
“We were detained from August 2022 to August 2023,” Dut stated. “A total of 106 individuals from the Greater Bahr El Gazal region were detained on accusations of supporting General Paul Malong Awan. Seventy-eight percent of the detainees were from Aweil or Northern Bahr El Gazal State. I was accused of inciting rebellion in Aweil and being a member of SSUF/A under the leadership of General Paul Malong Awan Anei, among others.”
The civil society activist highlighted that an investigative committee, formed by army chief Santino Deng Wol to probe his alleged links with Malong, concluded his innocence. Despite this, Dut endured a year in detention.
“The investigative committee established by the [SSPDF] Chief of Defense Forces, Santino Deng Wol, to conduct a fact-finding investigation, found my cohorts and me innocent and released us,” he explained. “The issue stemmed from the state governor seeking to silence dissent, but the national government discovered otherwise after extensive investigations.”
Two individuals working at a bakery in Aweil market shared that their siblings were arrested on allegations of being soldiers of General Malong. The arrests occurred after they declined joining the army.
“Many individuals are reluctant to enlist in the army, not due to opposition to the government or country, but because of inadequate compensation. It’s extremely challenging to support families on delayed army salaries,” stated Mading, an alias used for anonymity.
Mading’s colleague who doesn’t want to be named added, “Our siblings worked at a butchery in Aweil and were coerced to join the army. Upon refusal, they were falsely labeled as Malong’s associates and are currently detained in Wunyiik. They even expressed willingness to join after detention but remain incarcerated.”
When approached by Sudans Post for comment, Maj. Gen. Akueny Ajou (locally known as ‘Akuei Abusala’), the commander of the SSPDF’s 3rd Infantry Division, declined to engage, stating, “I don’t talk to journalists.” This lack of cooperation aligns with the customary reticence of South Sudan officials on sensitive media issues.
A captain at the division headquarters in Wunyiik corroborated that approximately 1018 recruits were undergoing training, with an additional 2000 in Mathiang.
“I’m not authorized to discuss the Mathiang recruits in Aweil Town, focusing on those in Wunyiik. This aligns with a new government plan under the SSPDF to safeguard the country from all threats,” the captain explained.
The SSPDF captain revealed that most recruits were forcefully conscripted, indicating that community leaders were coerced to supply young men for recruitment or face fines of approximately two cows per person.
When contacted in Juba, SSPDF spokesman Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang, initially denied knowledge of any new recruitment taking place, but later claimed that returnees – former soldiers who deserted due to inadequate payment – are misreported as new recruits. He attributed their return to the 400 percent increase in army salaries.
“We have not conducted any training but the information we received, and I was told is that those soldiers who had deserted their units when the pay were so low are the one reporting back. Even in Juba here, you know the salaries was not enough to sustain our families, so most of foot soldier deserted,” he said.
“But after the increment was announce and after the money was delivered, most of the deserted returned back to their units and this maybe reported wrongly that it is a new recruitment, on, we gave not conducted any new recruitment,” he added.
Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, spokesperson for the SPLA-IO, said the group was unaware of the training in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, but said it is not surprising because they had been doing so in many parts of the country following the signing of the revitalized peace agreement.
He condemned the SSPDF’s ongoing recruitment and training as a violation of the peace agreement. He urged the international and regional peace monitors to probe these infractions, emphasizing the need for mutual adherence to the peace agreement.
“It is not the beginning that the SSPDF have been training and recruitment at the same time. There have been series of recruitment that has been going on in SSPDF camps and also the National Police camps where the National Security had been training,” he said.
“This is a violation of the revitalized peace agreement and in particular the security arrangement, it takes two rectangles, if we are implementing the peace agreement, we expect our peace partner to also the same and with a heart of patriotism and nationalism, but it is supersizing that these violations are still happening intentionally.
“Why are we still recruiting enough forces in training centres and cantonment side that need to be unified, you start seeing and realize it that there is motive behind it, and I just hope it is peaceful rather than being violence. We can’t have peace because other people want us to have peace, we need to have peace because we really want to peace. We can call on the granters, we can on the international community, we can call on anybody in the region but what will that do to us,” he added.