Soldiers drink stagnant water somewhere in the Equatoria region | File photo

President Salva Kiir has instructed the newly appointed army chief to find out why soldiers are deserting the military camps.

Santino Deng Wol, who was the former SSPDF deputy chief of defense forces for administration and finance took oath of office on Monday.

He replaced Johnson Juma Okot on Saturday as the new chief of defense forces.

JJ Okot was replaced in a year after taking over from Gabriel Jok Riak.

In his remarks, the commander in chief instructed General Santino to reorganize the forces.

“If there are no security forces, there is no security. You Santino you need to find out what is scattering the soldiers,” he told the new army boss.

But several reports have already explained why soldiers are leaving the cantonment sites.

The issues forcing soldiers to run away from the assembling sites have been attributed to a lack of food, medication and shelter.

Some army commanders in the Equatoria region also say they subsist on mangoes after Juba failed to give them supplies.

Others say there are no vehicles to transport sick soldiers to nearby health facilities.

According to the 2018 peace deal, the peace parties are supposed to unify their forces under one command and transform it into a national army.

It’s been two years since the soldiers were assembled at training camps across the country.

Their graduation has been postponed severally due to what the government described as a lack of funds.

Several soldiers have already died while in the training and cantonment camps in Rajaf, Mundri, and other places.

Observers believe the delay to unify and graduate the forces has forced some SSPDF, SPLA-I0 and SSOA soldiers to desert the camps.

The UN and activists have raised concerns that these soldiers could cause insecurity in villages and along the major highways.