The Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) Commander of Diing Diing Cantonment site in Bentiu, Major General John Turuk Khor assures the public that the security situation is calm and they are following the weekly security meetings regularly between the SSPDF and SPLA-IO.
General Turuk adds that the situation is dire due to lack of rain and shortage of water in the area which makes the life hard for the civilians and soldiers together.
He further laments that people are getting diseases for drinking water directly from the river.
The Joint Military Ceasefire Commission or JMCC officer Colonel Lam Paul Gabriel, says there is no shelter and the last time the team received food was in June but never again.
‘Around thirty thousand civilians are in the area and plus the SPLA-IO forces are five thousand living in the area’, he explains.
Colonel Paul adds that the telecommunication coverage is poor and therefore not helping in communication and he urges for its activation.
The South Sudan People’s Defence Forces( SSPDF) Commander at the 4th Infantry Division in Rabkona, Major General Aweng Akec Aweng, says their team been assembled but not yet deploy into the barrack due to lack of transport which remain a challenge.
General Akec says that their division is divided into three states.
There is drastically reduction on cases of Sexual Gender Based Violence or SGBV and criminality rate in Bentiu from the joint activities between the SSPDF and SPLA-IO forces, says UNMISS Head of Field Office in Bentiu.
Hiroko Hirahara explains how the joint patrolling by the forces of the signatories to the revitalised agreement improved the security situation in Bentiu since 2018 December.
‘We cannot patrol with them but we are also optimistic’, Hirahara adds.
The officials spoke during the assessment field work in Bentiu by the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring Evaluation Commission or R-JMEC and the Ceasefire & Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring & Verification Mechanism or CTSAMVM on the progress in the implantation of the signatories of the revitalised pact