Government deploys unified forces to Upper Nile state with sticks

By Benjamin Takpiny

The first battalion of 750 unified forces has been deployed to Malakal town of Upper Nile state without fire arms.

 Michael Makuei Lueth, the National Minister of Information, Communication, Technology and Postal Services, said that the first phase of the unified forces are being deployed with sticks due to the existing arms embargo which has made it difficult for them to procure arms.

“We are deploying them without arms because we have no arms, the UN Security Council decided to pass a resolution on the arms embargo on South Sudan, so we are unable to acquire arms from any force,” Makuei told journalists after the weekly cabinet meeting in Juba.

“It is the international community that insisted and said that you must deploy these forces; we have been saying we cannot deploy them without arms,” he added.

He said that the forces which were trained in Upper Nile will be brought to Juba for integration with other forces from Bahr el-Ghazal.

  “All those forces that are coming from there will come and be mixed here (Juba), and they will be deployed in Equatoria, this is the system now,” Makuei said.

He called on the international community and the UN Security Council to lift the arms embargo to enable them arm the forces.

tHE transitional unity government graduated the first batch of 53,000 unified forces in August last year.

In total 83,000 unified forces are supposed to be graduated and deployed under the 2018 revitalized peace agreement signed to end years of conflict since outbreak in December 2013.

On May 30 2023, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to renew for a year, till May 31, 2024, arms embargo measures against South Sudan as well as targeted sanctions of travel ban and asset freeze against individuals and entities.

The arms embargo and sanctions were imposed in 2018 following outbreak of conflict in December 2013.