A key requirement of the 2018 peace deal in South Sudan appears to have been realised after implacable foes of the country’s civil war became united under the same security apparatus, APA can report on Wednesday.
In a process overseen by President Salva Kiir, the South Sudanese army has absorbed former rebel commanders into what is intended to be a unified armed forces command structure, according to a statement issued on Tuesday evening.
This is being seen as rapid progress after a deal was reached between President Kiir and his civil war foes over the distribution of positions in the armed and security forces, a key element of the comprehensive peace deal that was floundered on several occasions in the past.
Under the deal, Kiir loyalists are to man 60 percent of the armed forces command structure while the opposition would be represented in the remaining 40 percent.
This was a key sticking point of the peace agreement of 2018 which was meant to end the country’s then raging civil war which began in December 2013 and killed tens of thousands of people and displaced over three million.
Although President Kiir will maintain his grip on power, observer say, realising this aspect of the peace deal will give a realistic chance to South Sudan to bring a definitive end to civil strife which had plagued the young nation since it gained independence from the rest of Sudan in July 2011.
The landmark inclusion of former rebels into the country’s regular armed and security apparatuses will encourage other factions not part of the arrangement to follow suit, analysts say.
South Sudan has not realised its economic potential from its production of oil thanks to decades of a secessionist conflict followed by a devastating civil war which pitted President Salva Kiir and his vice president Riek Machar.
WN/as/APA