By Akol Madut Ngong
The Presidential Advisor on Security Affairs has revealed that the unification of commands is expected next week on Monday.
Tut Gatluak Manime was speaking yesterday in a conference organized by the Joint Defense Board (JDB).
“We are expecting unified command, we will have one sample on Monday 11th April, 2022,” adding “now we are remaining only with Saturday and Sunday but the commands will be unified on Monday” he said.
Gatluak urged the parties that are signatories to the peace agreement, the Chief of Defense, SPLM-IO and SSOA to concentrate on their affairs.
He said no one will have his or her own command; you will be a unified command of South Sudan.
Gatluak assured the conference that in phase two, “everyone will come with his Brigade, no one will come alone without Brigade, and we will see the one who don’t have a brigade”.
“We were having challenges, we started with Covid-19 pandemic and economic crisis of South Sudan that delayed the implementation of the Revitalized Peace Agreement but all of you were enduring until we reached this stage of unified command,” he added.
“This conference of today is the implementation of directives from the Presidency Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit and his First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny and Vice President for Service Cluster Hussein Abdelbagi Akol, these are the signatories to the agreement having armies,” he explained.
“After these many armies in the cantonment sites, almost going to two years in the training camp, we looked at the permanent solution until this stage that we are in now,” he added.
“Today we thank the arrival of the supreme leadership for reaching into consensus to the possible solution to the problems of South Sudan and this conference hopes that your colleges are going to unify the command,” Gatluak stressed.
“Within this coming week, we are expecting the decree from the Office of the President for the formation of unified Security forces in the country and after formation, we will celebrate and congratulate ourselves for the achievement,” adding everyone will go to his or her commanding barracks to give good services to the civil population and giving peace to the entire citizens of South Sudan,” he reiterated.
“The remaining outstanding issues, we will complete together and if there is any issue again, we will look at together as one body, thinking together, resolving together as long as we will have one unified army, unified Security forces and unified organized forces such as the police, correctional service, civil defense and wildlife on that day,” he said.
“We will be having unified security forces with the objectives of protecting citizens and their properties, protecting territories and constitution of South Sudan,” Gatluak said.