WARSAW: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday the government wants to launch a new program to offer voluntary military training from next year, with a target to train 100,000 volunteers in 2027.
“The most important thing for us is that every person interested can participate in such training no later than 2026. And that is a difficult task, but I know it is doable,” Tusk said ahead of a government sitting.
“In 2027 we will achieve the ability to train 100,000 volunteers per year... Apart from the professional army and beyond the Territorial Defense Force, we must de facto build an army of reservists and our actions will serve this purpose.”
The government backed giving military training to all adult males last week as Warsaw prepares for threats from Moscow.
Galvanized by Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine three years ago, Poland now spends a higher proportion of GDP on defense than any other NATO member.
Tusk said that as an incentive, the government would analyze the possibility of, for example, getting a professional driving license, including for heavy goods vehicles, during the military training.
“This will be useful in the event of war, but it will also be useful in life for those who are interested in such qualifications,” he said. The government is also considering providing specialist training to specific professional groups.
Tusk later said in a post on social media platform X that he told ministers that government members and officials would also undergo training on a voluntary basis, which, he said, was met with full understanding.
Poland wants 100,000 volunteers to take part in military training in 2027
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Poland wants 100,000 volunteers to take part in military training in 2027
- “The most important thing for us is that every person interested can participate in such training no later than 2026,” Tusk said
- The government backed giving military training to all adult males last week as Warsaw prepares for threats from Moscow
Treason trial of South Sudan’s suspended VP is further eroding peace deal, UN experts say
- The experts said forces from both sides are continuing to confront each other across much of the country
- “Years of neglect have fragmented government and opposition forces alike,” the experts said
UNITED NATIONS: The treason trial of South Sudan’s suspended vice president is further eroding a 2018 peace agreement he signed with President Salva Kiir, UN experts warned in a new report.
As Riek Machar’s trial is taking place in the capital, Juba, the experts said forces from both sides are continuing to confront each other across much of the country and there is a threat of renewed major conflict.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the UN Security Council last month that the crisis in South Sudan is escalating, “a breaking point” has become visible, and time is running “dangerously short” to bring the peace process back on track.
There were high hopes when oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict, but the country slid into a civil war in December 2013 largely based on ethnic divisions, when forces loyal to Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, battled those loyal to Machar, an ethnic Nuer.
More than 400,000 people were killed in the war, which ended with the 2018 peace agreement that brought Kiir and Machar together in a government of national unity. But implementation has been slow, and a long-delayed presidential election is now scheduled for December 2026.
The panel of UN experts stressed in a report this week that the political and security landscape in South Sudan looks very different today than it did in 2018 and that “the conflict that now threatens looks much different to those that came before.”
“Years of neglect have fragmented government and opposition forces alike,” the experts said, “resulting in a patchwork of uniformed soldiers, defectors and armed community defense groups that are increasingly preoccupied by local struggles and often unenthused by the prospect of a national confrontation. ”
With limited supplies and low morale, South Sudan’s military has relied increasingly on aerial bombings that are “relatively indiscriminate” to disrupt the opposition, the experts said.
In a major escalation of tensions in March, a Nuer militia seized an army garrison. Kiir’s government responded, charging Machar and seven other opposition figures with treason, murder, terrorism and other crimes.
The UN experts said Kiir and his allies insist that, despite having dismissed Machar, implementation of the peace agreement is unaffected, pointing to a faction of the opposition led by Stephen Par Kuol that is still engaged in the peace process.
Those who refused to join Kuol and sided with Machar’s former deputy, Natheniel Oyet, “have largely been removed from their positions, forcing many to flee the country,” the experts said in the report.
The African Union, regional countries and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, have all called for Machar’s release and stressed their strong support for implementation of the 2018 agreement, the panel said.
According to the latest international assessment, 7.7 million people — 57 percent of the population — face “crisis” levels of food insecurity, with pockets of famine in some communities most affected by renewed fighting, the panel said.
