South Sudan will send to civil life 150 thousand officers from the army and the police in the next eight years as part of its new demobilization programme.
William Deng Deng, chairperson of the Disarmament Demobilisation Reintegration (DDR) Commission, presented today the new policy approved last Friday by the council of ministers.He said the new DDR policy paves the way to remove at least 150 thousand soldiers and police officers from active service in the next six to eight years.
Mr. Deng added that 80 thousand will come from the army while 70 thousand from the police, prison, fire brigade and wildlife services.
The new DDR policy is expected to address the current insecurity in the region by providing urgent and comprehensive measures of disarming communities in the country.
Mr. Deng denied the existence of child soldiers in the SPLA.
He said the new policy will help get rid of children associated to the forces and child-soldiers recruited by militia groups.
The DDR commission claims to have demobilised at least 12 thousand ex-combatants since 2005, but critics described the programme as a failure.
Mr. Deng said the new policy has addressed all the previous mistakes through line ministries.
Mr. Deng added that the execution of the new policy will kick off immediate as the commission is waiting for more aid from a donors’ conference in Germany this December.