By Bosco Bush
In the wake of surging insecurity incidents reported across the country, a member of the civil society organizations has reiterated calls for urgent deployment of the already graduated Necessary Unified Forces (NUF).
Recently, in Juba, a sparkle of security threats was witnessed involving members of the organized forces and some unruly armed elements that led to sporadic shootings. Other incidents of killings and gang robbery were also reported in the City.
Killings, abductions and disappearance of civilians were also reported in the subnational areas.
Taban A. Christopher, Executive Director, of Vision for Generation, and a representative of the Civil Society Forum to the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), highlighted the increased insecurity cases to the RJMEC 37th Preliminary Meeting on Thursday, August 8.
Christopher questioned why the transitional government is delaying deploying the NUF forces who would best provide improved security and safety for the citizens in the country.
He appealed for immediate arrest of the situation, deployment of the graduated NUF forces, and commencement of the training of the phase two as stipulated in 2018 Revitalized Peace Accord.
“We therefore recommend and demand immediate arrest of the situation of the insecurity to the citizens of this country, not only in Juba but also in the entirety of the country.”
“We urge the transitional government to speed up the process of the deployment of the already graduated 1st batch of the Necessary Unified Forces.”
“We demand, request and urge government relevant apparatus to take a shift position to have the 2nd batch of the Necessary Unified Forces trained, graduated and deployed so that they are able to man the security of this country,” Christopher appealed.
In August 2022, the transitional government graduated over 50,000 trained Necessary Unified Forces. However, their deployment to provide security across the country has been slow.
Since then, Ceasefire Transitional Security Arrangement Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (CTSAM-VM), the body tasked with the implementation of the security arrangements has reported only 8 battalions in equivalence of around 5,000 or so NUF forces have been deployed.
Training as well as graduation and deployment of Phase Two is yet to commence.
Chapter Two, Security Arrangements of the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ACISS), mandated for the transitional government to canton, train and graduate, and deploy the Necessary Unified Forces to provide security across the country.