November 14, 2023 The National Transitional Committee (NTC) said the deployment of the first phase of the necessary unified forces will kick off on Wednesday, at Luri Payam.
The peace parties graduated 53,000 as per the 2018 peace agreement security arrangements between August and November 2022. But since then, not a single force has been deployed.
The unification and redeployment of the forces were supposed to take place within six months of the per-transitional period from the signing of the peace agreement in 2018.
The parties, particularly the SPLM-IG, attributed the delays to a lack of firearms to deploy the forces, citing the arms embargo imposed on the country.
It had on several occasions appealed to the international community to convince the UN Security Council to lift the ban on the acquisition of the arms embargo to enable redeployment.
However, the opposition backed the arms embargo and suggested that civilians should be disarmed, and their weapons be distributed to the unified forces for redeployment.
On October 13, 2023, the Government Spokesperson, Michael Makuei, said during the cabinet meeting that the graduated forces would be deployed once the national legislature approves the fiscal budget for 2023/2024
According to him, the second batch would be graduated with firearms, saying, “Because phase two is a condition that you must produce your rifle to be qualified for entering the centres.”
In May 2023, the Council of Ministers approved SSP3.6 billion for the deployment of the Necessary Unified Forces in the country and is not clear whether the money was released.
