South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The government announced on Tuesday that preparations are underway for a three-month training programme for 136,000 unified forces in its second phase.
During his keynote address at the 4th RJMEC extraordinary meeting in Juba, Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro, Minister of Cabinet Affairs, stated that the training for the second phase, which includes the police, SSPDF, prison, wildlife, civil defence, and national security service, is expected to commence by the end of this month.
“We will conduct administrative screening for all the available forces, and we aim to begin by the end of this month, ensuring that phase two is completed within three months,” Lomuro said.
He mentioned that the budget for the training would be discussed next week, and salaries for personnel at the training centres would be released prior to their deployment in preparation for phase two.
“The budget will be discussed sometime next week, and it will include funds for the salaries of the police, prison, wildlife, and fire brigade personnel, so they can be deployed to their respective institutions.”
Lomuro indicated that plans for phase two are in advanced stages and are anticipated to be completed within three months.
“We expect 136,000 personnel to participate in phase two; the details regarding the SSPDF, police, prison, wildlife, and civil defence are already available,” he stated.
He noted that assembly points have been identified, and preparations are in place to screen and organise the forces in the Equatoria, Bahr el Ghazal, and Upper Nile regions.
“We assure the leadership that funds will be provided for food, which is available and will be repositioned once teams have checked in at the training centres,” he said.
Lomuro added that the forces will take charge of overall security to prepare the country for the upcoming election.
“We will not conduct the lengthy training we had in phase one; rather, the experiences from phase one show that this can be accomplished within three months.”
