Parties agree to establishment of 25 cantonment sites; forces to begin moving this week

The Joint Defence Board has agreed to the establishment of twenty-five cantonment sites for all opposition forces.

The Joint Defence Board is formed at the level of chiefs of staff and directors general of national security service, police and all other organized forces.
The body is tasked with command and control over all forces during the pre-transitional period.
Each cantonment site will have a maximum of three thousand seven hundred and fifty (3,750) combatants of the SPLA-IO and the South Sudan Opposition Alliance and a minimum of not less than a force of a battalion, while the government will maintain 68 barracks across the country.

An additional 15 sites will be established and designated during the second phase of the security arrangement to make a total of 40 sites for all opposition troops.

In an exclusive interview with Radio Miraya in Juba on Monday, the deputy spokesperson of the SPLA-IO Col Lam Paul Gabriel said all forces of the opposition are expected to assemble at the sites from the tenth of this month, beginning in Kendila of Yei River State.

Col. Lam says the opposition forces are expected to assemble in these cantonment site within forty- five days.