JUBA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Monitors of South Sudan's peace process on Monday called on the government to provide funds for the redeployment of 49,000 Necessary Unified Forces (NUF) in the country.

The Chief of Staff at the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), Berhanu Kebede, said that only 4,000 forces out of the 53,000 graduated in the first phase since August 2022 have been redeployed, accounting for 6 percent of the forces.

"Regarding completion of the unification of forces, there has been no substantive progress since the reported redeployment of 4,000 Phase I NUF during the last quarter," Kebede said in a quarterly report to the national parliament in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

"RJMEC recommends the government provide, as a matter of urgency, all the resources necessary to deploy the remaining NUF and complete harmonization of the command structure so that the country can have a unified force with a national character under one commander-in-chief," he added.

Kebede said that the parties to the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement also need to find the critical disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) process.

"DDR is a critical component of the unification process which should not be ignored. However, it is encouraging that the Strategic Defense and Security Review Board is now in the process of validating the security sector policy framework," he said.

Kebede noted that there has been slow progress on the preparations for Phase II training of the NUF, adding that the situation in cantonment sites remains dire due to a lack of enough food, medicines, clean water, and shelter.

The transitional unity government of South Sudan, which includes the police, army, prisons, wildlife, and intelligence services, is expected to graduate 83,000 NUF in total.

Kebede also disclosed that the humanitarian situation has been compounded by the continuous depreciation of the South Sudanese pound against the U.S. dollar.

He said the depreciation of the local currency has inflated food prices, which increased by 19 percent in February compared to January, thus worsening the situation of the population, as 9 million people are already classified as acutely food insecure.

Kebede noted that the majority of the returnees and refugees who fled conflict in neighboring Sudan lack clean water, food, shelter, and healthcare due to limited resources available for humanitarian response.

Kebede also said that taxation of humanitarian relief materials, the presence of illegal checkpoints, and insecurity along humanitarian corridors continued to hinder the speedy humanitarian response.

However, he noted that efforts are ongoing to improve the business environment by formalizing a good number of informal businesses.

Kebede thus urged the government to speed up the enactment of the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing, and the Compensation and Reparation Authority Bills. Enditem

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