Watchdog ‘disappointed’ as Eastern Equatoria postpones graduation of peace forces for third time

JUBA – A South Sudan civil society watchdog has expressed disappointment after the government of Eastern Equatoria State said the graduation of the unified forces has again been pushed to at least 16 September, 2022.

On September 13, Eastern Equatoria State information minister Patrick Oting Cyprian said the delay is due to logistical issues and registration of the forces and that authorities were still analyzing before they come up with the final list of those who will be graduated.

“Because of the logistical issues and the registration of these forces, they are still analyzing and they are still crosschecking the original names that they have in that list because they were people at the training center ready for graduation who did the training and finished but now we have other forces who are coming in who were not even at the training center and they needed to be graduated,” Oting told Radio Tamazuj said.

“The batch that we are graduating is the one that attended and completed the training,” he added.

In a statement to Sudans Post on Tuesday, Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), said his organization is disappointed over the continued postponement of graduation of peace forces in Eastern Equatoria warning the delay is frustrating soldiers.

“CEPO is expressing disappointment over the continuation postponement of the graduation for the unified forces in Eastern Equatoria state for third times. These continuous postponements discouraging gained momentum and posing indicators of possibility of frustrating the soldiers and likelihood of abandoning them like in the past,” Yakani said.

“The leadership of the unified command and the JDB and JTSC should act on the issue of supporting the graduation of the unified forces in Eastern Equatoria sate immediately,” he added.

The activist further called on the presidency to support the government of Eastern Equatoria state in ensuring the timely graduation of the unified forces to provide security for the people of Eastern Equatoria state and of course the country.

“The presidency should urgently support the government of Eastern Equatoria state with the necessary support for graduating the unified forces urgently since redeployment is essential step of transitional security arrangements,” Yakani said.

“Redeployment of the graduated unified forces is a key factor of motivation for enrollment of new branch of the face two of forces for training, graduation and redeployment. Consistency in the actions of training, graduating and redeploying of the require faces of the unified forces is an essential demonstration of renewal of political pledge and commitment for transitioning the situation from Violence to peace though genuine R-ARCSS implementation,” he stressed.

The statement concluded by “urging the leadership in Juba to ensure that quick graduation of unified forces in the states are delivered immediately without any delayed so we open window for enrollment of phase two of the unification of forces.”