JUBA — South Sudan’s transitional unity government on Thursday revealed it urgently needs 40 million U.S. dollars to conclude the graduation of the unified forces in the country.

“The total amount that is requested for the completion of the remaining tasks is 40 million dollars. The lack of funds contributed to the delay of most of the activities, including the graduation of unified forces,” said Evans Doctor Ali, head of finance for the National Transitional Committee (NTC) in Juba during meeting of members of the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring Evaluation Mechanism in Juba.

National Transitional Committee (NTC) is the body charged under the 2018 revitalized peace deal to supervise implementation of the peace deal signed to end more than six years of conflict since the outbreak in December 2013.

Under the 2018 peace deal, South Sudan is supposed to graduate 83,000 unified forces drawn from the various parties to take charge of security during the ongoing transitional period.

President Salva Kiir in his independence speech on July 9 promised graduation of the 53,000 first batches of these forces but this has not yet materialized.