By Kidega Livingstone
Sudan People’s Liberation Army In-opposition (SPLA-IO) has raised concerns of lack of essential supplies for their forces in Upper Nile State who are yet to be unified.
Deputy Chairman of the Joint Defense Board and Acting General Chief of Staff of SPLA-IO, Lt. Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, raised the matter after touring cantonment areas and other bases of the SPLA-IO forces.
Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, who is also SPLA-IO spokesperson narrated the distressing situation of SPLA-IO forces in the Greater Upper Nile region to No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspapers, in an interview.
He noted that due to scarcity of food, the forces are sometimes forced to go without meals, leading to hunger-related health issues and illnesses.
“Our Acting Chief of General Staff of SPLA-IO forces went to the Greater Upper Nile to check on it. I got the information of his going to the ground that there is a lack of food for the soldiers” he stated.
“Medical supplies are also not there, and there are no health centres in all the assembly areas,” Lam continued.
According to him, the SPLA-IO acting Chief of General Staff visited some of the counties occupied by the forces, including Atar, Fangak, and Malakal, where he witnessed the forces lacking food and medical supplies.
“We are not able to reach them because of a lack of fights in the areas; it has become a problem. I cannot tell you if they received any food, staff, or medical supplies at the moment because the Chief is still moving, and later he will give the full details to the Presidency,” he said.
When the issue is brought to the principals Lam said the SPLA-IO Commander-in-Chief, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, will then discuss with the leadership of the country whether these forces are applied to receive whatever they are lacking.
He said the forces are supposed to go for the implementation of phase two of the security arrangement.
“We are yet to call these forces from those areas to move to the cantonment area; they will be registered and screen then later trained to be deployed to the centers where they are needed” he underscored.
Two years ago, the Joint Military Ceasefire Commission (JMCC) established seventeen (17) cantonment areas to accommodate the second batch of the Unified forces from the rank of armed opposition forces.
In Greater Upper Nile alone, there were 5,460 army officers, 3,405 police personnel in Twofogia, 1,765 Army officers in Panyijir, 2,305 police officers in Muom, and 2,747 army officers in Kaljak.