Hundreds of former rebels and government troops from South Sudan’s unified forces were deployed in a long-awaited ceremony on Wednesday, signaling progress in the country’s sluggish peace process.
Since its independence from Sudan in 2011, the world’s newest nation has struggled to find its footing, battling violence, endemic poverty, and natural disasters.
The unification of forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, was a key condition of the 2018 peace agreement that ended a five-year conflict in which nearly 400,000 people died.
The country’s army received tens of thousands of former fighters in August of last year, but none of them have been deployed as of yet, which has angered the international community.
Nearly a thousand soldiers make up the first battalion that will be sent to Malakal in northern Upper Nile State, which has been inundated with South Sudanese refugees escaping the fighting in neighboring Sudan.
The nation’s head of defense forces, Santino Wol, urged the battalion to stay together during the ceremony outside of the capital, Juba, saying, “Be a soldier and don’t get involved in politics.”
Despite having large oil reserves, South Sudan is one of the poorest countries on the planet, having spent nearly half of its life at war and being roiled by outbreaks of politically motivated ethnic violence.
