A group of 285 former South Sudan People’s Liberation Army
(SPLA) soldiers this week graduated from vocational training
courses designed to reintegrate them into civilian life in the
country’s Eastern Equatoria State.

The courses, supported by the South Sudan Disarmament,
Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Commission, in partnership
with UNDP and IOM, have graduated a total 5,755 former soldiers
nationwide over the past five months. 

As part of a UNDP-funded South Sudan DDR programme, IOM offers
support to ex-combatants in skills development and provides assets
to create livelihood, improve their economic opportunities and
provide them with adequate income to facilitate their transition
back into civil society. Their reintegration also contributes to
the development of their communities.  

The programme, launched in mid 2010, targeted 12,525 candidates.
IOM has now provided reintegration assistance to over half of them
in four of the ten South Sudan states, including Warrap, Western
Bahr el Ghazal, Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Eastern Equatoria
States. 

This week’s graduates were trained as drivers, small
business operators, food processors, auto mechanics and
carpenters.   

Lotiras Jino Murise, demobilized from the SPLA in 2008, chose to
be trained as an auto mechanic. He said that he had benefitted from
the training and looked forward to being able to find a job now
that he had a trade.  “Without a trade, it would be very
difficult to adjust to civilian life,” he said. 

The second phase of the South Sudan DDR Programme will be
launched later this year, targeting 150,000 former combatants. This
will make it the largest and the most ambitious DDR programme
worldwide. 

IOM has been implementing DDR in Africa for 20 years in 12
countries, including Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Côte
d’Ivoire, the DRC, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique,
Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.  Currently, IOM
is implementing DDR projects in the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan,
and security sector reform projects in Somalia, the DRC and Sierra
Leone. 

For more information please contact: 

Vincent Houve

IOM Juba

Tel: +249.901.238.886

Email: "mailto:vhouver@iom.int">vhouver@iom.int