After years of war, state grapples with delicate task of demobilising soldiers

Southern Sudan is facing a major challenge of disarming more than 150,000 soldiers and easing them back to civilian life when it gains independence this week.

Southern Sudan Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission chairman William Deng Deng said the new state wants to get rid of excess forces including the elderly, disabled and children.

“These are soldiers that are no longer useful after the war. We now need an organised, professional, controllable force,” Mr Deng told the Sunday Nation during an interview in Nairobi.

Southern Sudan is set to be Africa’s 53rd state on July 9 and change its name to South Sudan.

Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended 21 years of war between north and southern Sudan, the commission is to plan, manage and implement the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes in the south.

“The objective of the DDR process is to contribute to creating an enabling environment to human security and to support post-peace-agreement social stabilisation across the Sudan, particularly war affected areas,” Mr Deng said.

Among those to be disarmed, demobilised and reintegrated back to the communities voluntarily are Sudanese People’s Liberation Army and Sudan Armed Forces where 90,000 from each group had been targeted under the CPA.

Appealing for support from donors, Mr Deng said the exercise is crucial, and that if it is not well handled, it poses a major security threat not only to South Sudan but the entire region.

Enhance democracy

“If we fail to control proliferation of small arms in southern Sudan the region will be affected. It is something that needs to be addressed to enhance stability and democracy.

Neighbouring countries are also vulnerable as that is where southern Sudanese easily cross to as refugees,” Mr Deng said.

According to UN figures, there are an estimated 2.4 million guns with individuals who are not in the standing army of southern Sudan with a population of about 10 million.

Mr Deng said his government is committed to the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration and that it has given the process the necessary support.

He said he will soon table a policy to the Cabinet on the process including a framework on how it would be done so that the government could retain about 100,000 armed personnel.

The soldiers would first undergo a three-month intensive training, then six months of integration and later three months of counselling and training. The exercise is to start in January and handle between 10,000 and 30,000 soldiers per year in three transit facilities.

It will take six to eight years to complete the programme, Mr Deng said, adding that the majority of those to be affected are the elderly and disabled. Southern Sudan has until 2017 to re-organise itself and transform its armed forces.

Mr Deng said his commission was facing huge challenges due to the vastness of southern Sudan, poor terrain and small economy.
Subsistence agriculture.

“The number of soldiers to be transformed to civilians is too big.