JUBA, South Sudan \u2014\u00a0South Sudan\u2019s First Vice President Riek Machar Teny has rejected a government proposal to share the command of yet-to-graduate 83,000 military recruits.<\/p>\n
Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomuro said the parties to the September 2018\u00a0Revitalized Peace Agreement<\/a>\u00a0reached a consensus on Aug. 28 to share the command of the unified forces 60:40.<\/p>\n President Salva Kiir Mayardit<\/a>\u00a0leads the\u00a0Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement<\/a>\u00a0[in Government] while Machar leads the\u00a0\u00a0Sudan Peoples\u2019 Liberation Army-In Opposition<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, Puok Both Baluang, Machar\u2019s acting press secretary, said they have learned with \u201cgreat surprise and concern\u201d about Lomuro\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this context, we strongly refute this false information and also underscore that the issue remains unresolved,\u201d Baluang told Zenger News.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last sharing ratio on the establishment of the Unified Command proposed by IGAD [Inter-Governmental Authority for Development<\/a>]\u00a0is 55:45, which the parties have not yet discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n About 83,000 forces have been in various cantonment sites for years, awaiting graduation and deployment.<\/p>\n \u201cAlready approximately 53,000 forces composed of soldiers from all the parties to the agreement are in training centers across the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur resolve to graduate these forces has been doubted, but I would like to assure you that necessary arrangements for their graduation are at an advanced stage.\u201d<\/p>\n Kiir says the government lacks funds and weapons to conduct proper training for the soldiers due to an arms embargo the United Nations imposed on the country in July 2018.<\/p>\n The United Nations Security Council in\u00a0May 2021<\/a>\u00a0extended for a year the embargo, travel ban, and assets freeze imposed on some South Sudanese leaders accused of fanning political instability in the country.<\/p>\n Civil Society groups, such as\u00a0Amnesty International<\/a>, urged the Security Council not to lift the arms embargo until South Sudan\u2019s warring parties meet human rights benchmarks.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if there is a Good Samaritan who is ready to support us and give us these weapons, they will not do so because that will be a violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution,\u201d\u00a0Michael Makuei Lueth,<\/a>\u00a0the government spokesman and the Minister of Information, told Zenger News.<\/p>\n \u201cTime has come for us to graduate the soldiers, but we are unable to do so because they have no arms. If we fail, we\u2019ll graduate them with the current sticks they are using in the training centers.\u201d<\/p>\n Logo Martin Leonard, the head department of Political Science, School of Social Science at the University of Juba, said both the government and the international community are delaying the graduation of the forces by blaming each other on who should fund the security arrangements.<\/p>\n \u201cThe civilian population is heavily armed,\u201d Leonard told Zenger News.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe the government would have asked the international community to help them to disarm the community, and after the disarmament, use the arms to graduate the forces. So, in essence, I see the argument of both sides does not hold water.\u201d<\/p>\n Recent internal splits within Machar\u2019s faction complicate the peace process, said Workneh\u00a0<\/i>Gebeyehu, the executive secretary for the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know this is an internal party issue, but the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement-In Opposition is a signatory to the peace agreement,\u201d he said during a visit to Juba on Aug. 10.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, if something happens to that signatory, in one way or the other, that affects the peace process of South Sudan. It is not just a party issue. It is a South Sudanese issue, and it is a regional issue [for the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development].\u201d<\/p>\n The leadership of Machar\u2019s party and military council removed him as party chairman and Commander-In-Chief and replaced him with Chief of Staff, First Lieutenant General Simon Gatwech, on Aug. 4.<\/p>\n Consequently, Machar fired three generals commanding his forces in Upper Nile State \u2014 Gatwech, General Johnson Olony, and General Thomas Mabor Dhoal.<\/p>\n Dual also blamed Machar for weakening the former rebel movement\u2019s hand in the\u00a0Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity<\/a>\u00a0formed in February 2020.<\/p>\n Two years after South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, a brutal, ethnically-driven conflict broke out in mid-December 2013 between Kiir and Machar, from the\u00a0rival<\/a>\u00a0Dinka and Nuer tribes, respectively.<\/p>\n A 2018 peace agreement still holds, but raging inter-communal conflicts in several states have worsened the security situation amidst a severe famine that threatens the livelihoods of more than 8.5 million out of\u00a011.3 million<\/a>\u00a0people.<\/p>\n