Paramilitary Groups – 2005
2005
The 2005 CPA requires the removal and withdrawal of the paramilitary forces (Popular Defence Forces) from areas where they were previously located. This withdrawal or removal was intended to boost the capacity of civilian police. Prior to the CPA, the paramilitary organization worked as a police force without accountability to the community or independent oversight. According to the U.N. Secretary General’s Report, “in five locations in the south, approximately 17,000 former government police remain deployed as well as the emergent police force derived from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.”1 Available news archives, reports from the U.N. Secretary General and CPA implementation updates available from the UNMIS on the implementation of this CPA provision do not suggest that the removal or withdrawal of the paramilitary forces did not take place. This suggests that this provision of accord was implemented. Nevertheless, the withdrawal of the paramilitary forces depended on the capacity increase of the civilian police force, which did not improve significantly.