This month, South Sudan will deploy the first batch of the unified forces with sticks because of the UN arms embargo, the media reported, citing the country's official.
"The process of the deployment of forces is continuing and probably within this month the deployment of the graduated forces will be done, and we are going to deploy them with sticks," the country's Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth was quoted by the media as saying after the cabinet meeting in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
The deployment of the forces, consisting of 52,000 personnel, who graduated last August, was delayed due to the launch of training of the second batch of the unified forces, the outlet said.
The minister also reportedly noted that the country's authorities "have been trying to wait and see if there will be a possibility of lifting the arms embargo so that the unified forces are deployed."
Following the outbreak of the conflict in 2013 between the country's President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar, who was accused by Kiir of attempting a coup, in 2018 the UN have taken a range of punitive measures against South Sudan, including asset freezes, travel bans and the arms embargo.
After several failed ceasefires, the opponents signed a peace agreement in 2018, according to which the transitional government committed to train and deploy unified forces with a total of 83,000 people, including police, wildlife, intelligence and military officers.
In May, the UN sanctions against South Sudan were extended for one more year. The deployment of the unified forces is crucial as they are supposed to ensure security during the country's election, which are planned for December 2024 at the end of the current transitional period, the media noted.
Commenting on the issue, South Sudan's Foreign Minister James Pitia Morgan in an exclusive interview with Sputnik Africa in late September highlighted that the country's military forces cannot provide security on its territory "with sticks."
As for Russia's position regarding the prolongation of the arms embargo, the country has long opposed this measure.