Top army commanders pledge to implement unification of forces

South Sudan People Defense Forces (SSPDF) and the opposition commanders of the SPLA IO and Opposition Alliance have a welcome breakthrough in the security arrangement. They announced to graduate fifty thousand (50,00) soldiers this month.

On Sunday last week, political leaders reached an agreement on implementing a command structure.

The three army factions in the revitalized agreement have called their field commanders to stop the fighting to ensure parties focus on the unification of forces.

On Friday, the Joint Defense Board (JDB) briefed the army generals at the Military headquarters, the Bilpam.

The Deputy Chief of defense forces, Lt. Gen. Thon Chany Reech, said the issues that delayed the unification of the Army had been resolved.

He calls the generals on both sides to work as a team and build confidence to ensure the agreement signed is implemented.

The South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) representative, Gen. Julius Tabule, says the armies are ready to implement the agreement on the security command structure.

“The sticking issues that had caused some bid of stalemate in the agreement’s implementation or the security arrangement have been resolved, and work will start immediately. That’s the message to the forces. Our principals have agreed on the implementation, and we are here to execute their directives.”

According to the officials, the command structure is expected to be announced by President Kiir next week.

The acting chief of the general staff of the SPLA-IO, Lt. Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, reiterates the need for building trust among the three armies to make significant progress on security arrangements.

“We will be unified as one and at the same time to the security monitoring bodies. For this country to have one army, I believe those committees will continue with the work either it JDB, JMCC, JTC, they will continue until the last women, and the latest men become under one unit.”

The senior army officials have also called for a cessation of hostilities at the cantonment sites across the country.