Forces without firearms will not attend phase two training, says minister

By Benjamin Takpiny

The national minister of information, communication, technology and postal services, Michael Makuei Lueth said that soldiers who will turn up for the second phase of training without firearms will not be considered.

“We are clearing the training centers so that phase two of the unified forces goes to the training, and this time nobody will be allowed to go to the training center without a rifle,” Lueth told Journalists last week in Juba.

 He said that don’t want the same situation that befell the first phase training of unified forces to happen to the second phase of trainees.

 “We will graduate them with their arms, their arms will be put in the store during the training and after training they will be given their arms,” Lueth said.

The government on last week deployed the first phase of unified forces to Malakal town of Upper Nile state, consisting of 750 soldiers.

In August 2022, the transitional unity government passed out 53,000 unified forces but failed to deploy them immediately due to logistical constraints and the existing arms embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council since 2018.

Overall, the government is supposed to graduate 83,000 unified forces consisting of police, intelligence, military and prisons and wildlife.