This archive report was first published on 20 July 2019.
On July 19, 2019, the Joint Defense Board (JDB) ordered South Sudan's armed forces and rebels to report to military camps, marking a significant step towards creating a unified national army as part of a peace accord.
The deal, signed in September 2018, aimed to end almost six years of conflict in South Sudan, which broke out in 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup.
According to the agreement, Machar is to return from exile to serve as vice president in a power-sharing government, which must be in place by November.
However, the logistics of creating cantonment sites, where troops and rebels are screened, trained, and integrated into a single force, have been a major hurdle.
"JDB today made a very big decision," rebel SPLA-IO spokesman Col. Lam Paul Gabriel told the media in Juba. "Today they have made it very clear that forces by tomorrow should report to cantonment sites immediately."
The government's military spokesman Major General Lul Ruai Koang said all government forces were also ordered to report to their barracks.
