S. Sudan starts demobilising soldiers - paper

By Katy Migiro

NAIROBI (AlertNet) - South Sudan has launched a plan to help 80,000 government soldiers lay down their arms, the Sudan Tribune reported on Thursday.

“The DDR (disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration) process focuses on integrating combatants from the civil war into civil population and… (will) provide them with job-training and support to re-enter society,” William Deng Deng, chairman of the DDR commission, was quoted as saying.

South Sudan became independent in July, following the end in 2005 of two decades of civil war with the government in Khartoum.

Juba has been struggling to quell ethnic and rebel violence in several parts of a country the size of France. Around 300,000 people have abandoned their homes and farms, and 3,000 have been killed this year, according to the United Nations.

Most of the soldiers will be moved to other security organs, such as the police, prison, wildlife and fire brigade services. The exercise will take six to eight years.