One of the ways in which COVID-19 had a negative impact on the implementation of the peace process was felt when the government decided to suspend the training of the unified forces as a precautionary measure – a decision that affected 29 000 combatants. The creation of a unified army was one of the core aspects of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), signed in 2018. Delays in the formation of the united forces will have a negative knock-on effect on the implementation of a number of other clauses of the R-ARCSS.