Day: November 22, 2021

South Sudan’s Vice President for Infrastructure, Taban Deng Gai, last week inspected the construction and repair works at the Juba and Freedom Bridges.

One lane of the Juba Bridge has been under repair since October, leaving the bridge partially operational causing a snarl-up in traffic, while the Freedom Bridge has been under construction since 2016.

But, the government now says the other lane of the old bridge will be operational in less than two weeks and the Freedom Bridge will be completed in six months.

“Maintenance of the old bridge is about to finish though we will still face problems on the old bridge because of overloading. I am appealing to all the companies to avoid overloading of the trucks to save the old bridge because it has a historical meaning and we still need it,” Vice President Taban Deng Gai said.

Engineer Peter Atem who supervises the rehabilitation of one lane of the Juba Bridge on behalf of the Rhino Stars Company says the lane under repair would be ready in two weeks.

“We are very happy that the bridge will open in 10-14 days. Everyone should be patient as we are waiting for the slab to dry and that will take about 10 to 14 days,” he said.

VP Deng speaking at the Freedom Bridge said the construction work will come to an end in about six months.

“We still have more than six months to complete this bridge. This is great support from the people and the government of Japan. We thank the government of Japan for this very important support. This is going to ease communication between parts of South Sudan, Uganda, and the Western parts of the Nile. This is going to boost a lot of economic activities between Juba and parts of Western Equatoria, Bahr El Ghazal, and Upper Nile Regions,” he added.

The Japanese Resident Engineer Omeda Norio told reporters in Juba Thursday that the Freedom Bridge will be opened next year on July 5th.

“To the public, I will say Freedom Bridge will be ready by the 6th of July. I am very happy to contribute to this bridge for the people of South Sudan. Before there was nothing in this area of the Nile but now you can see this structure and that is our job,” he said.

The Freedom Bridge was named after the independence of the Republic of South Sudan as a grant from the government of Japan.

The Juba Bridge was built by a Dutch construction company De Groot International under a United Nations program between 1972 to 1974 to connect Juba Town to the eastern bank of the River Nile.

“We have initiated a discussion at a low level especially with the former Ambassador of Japan for more grants for this kind of support because we need more bridges. For the public information, we are discussing with a Turkish company that will repair Nimule road to construct another bridge South of Juba and is going to be about six kilometers south of Juba,” Vice President Deng concluded.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

Officials in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) said 11 civilians who left for the Jonglei State capital, Bor town to sell cattle were killed in a revenge attack over the weekend.

Jay Adingora Alual, the GPAA information minister, told Radio Tamazuj that the incident took place in the town of Bor on Friday afternoon and continued until Saturday.

“The incident happened yesterday (Friday) when our youth who were selling their cattle and some of them who were buying items in the market were attacked by the youth of Bor within Bor town,” Adingora explained. “As of yesterday, seven were killed on the spot and today four more people were killed.”

Adingora, who also serves as the GPAA government mouthpiece, condemned the ‘targeted killing’ and called for the culprits to be arrested.

“The rumor we heard was that these people were killed as a revenge for two people killed in Anyidi. It is unfortunate that people are killed within the town for crimes of which we can not accept or deny if they were done by Murle youth. So we want our sisterly state, Jonglei to investigate this,” he stressed.

Judi Jonglei, a GPAA lawmaker, and prominent Murle elder called on the Jonglei and national governments to intervene, expressing concerns that the situation could escalate if those involved in the killings are not arrested.

For her part, Veronica William, Jonglei state information minister, said: “What I heard was that two people were killed in the side of Anyidi yesterday (Friday). About 11 people were killed in Bor, I am not aware if it might have happened because I just returned from Juba.”

Several attempts by Radio Tamazuj to reach out to the Jonglei State Governor Denay Jock Chagor, state police commissioner Joseph Mayen and Bor County commissioner Yuot Alier were futile.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

At least two children were abducted last week in Lomeyen Payam in Kapoeta North County of South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria state, officials said.

4-year-old Namuya Chapi and 5-year-old Lokamu Lokai Ngole were abducted by youth suspected to be from the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, GPAA while they were herding on Wednesday.

Kapoeta North County Commissioner Ephone Emmanuel Lolimo told Radio Tamazuj that the local youth are still in pursuit of the abductors as footprints head towards the Pibor area.

“The children were abducted at 9 am while they were looking after their goats. Up to now, the youth are still pursuing the abductors. The primary suspects are the Murle because the footmarks are going towards their direction,” Emmanuel said.

The commissioner says this is the second such incident this month. He says at the beginning of the month a child was abducted but was later recovered.

“I have already sent the document to the state authorities they will be able to communicate with their counterparts because I don’t have communications with them. Also, their administrator is at the level of the governor so he will be able to communicate with him directly. We really need to fight against this war of child abduction and we are also urging our neighbors to stop it,” he added.

Eastern Equatoria State youth President James Otililing Oliang expressed dismay over the continuous attacks on children in the state and demanded that the perpetrators, when caught, face the full wrath of the law.

“Anything to do with human trafficking, kidnapping is always unacceptable, the law condemns this in the strongest terms possible. We, as the youth of the state this is what we call a barbaric act,” Otililing said. “We appeal to the authorities concerned to exert much pressure particularly to the youth of greater Pibor to refrain from such inhuman behaviors.”

GPAA authorities were not available for comment on the matter.

In August, a woman was killed and her two children abducted by unknown gunmen.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

A two-day cattle pre-migration conference concluded in South Sudan’s Warrap State on Saturday.

The conference was organized by the state ministry of peacebuilding with support from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan UNMISS Civil Affairs Division under the theme “strengthening community seasonal cattle migration and social cohesion”.

About 90 participants from the nine payams of Tonj South, Tonj North, Gogrial West, and Gogrial East counties took part in the conference aimed at addressing challenges faced during cattle migration in Western Bahr el Ghazal state before January.

The 2020 Marial Baai Agreement was signed by the governments of Warrap and Western Bahr el Ghazal to regulate cattle movement in Jur/Luo areas in Wau during the dry season.

Joseph Riwongole, UNMISS Civil Affairs Officer, said it was good to identify challenges related to cattle migration before migration begins.

“We are here passing the messages of peace and take the same messages home. What is unique with Africans is the ability to carry books on their heads and pass them on to the next generation. It is good that the Marial-Baai agreement is the benchmark to guide cattle migration and host communities,” he said.

Warrap State acting governor Deborah Uduel Okech, thanked UNMISS for supporting the communal grassroots peace initiatives.

“The reason for poverty, malnutrition, and illiteracy in Warrap state is because we have no peace among ourselves as a community and with neighbors. So I appreciate UNMISS and other organizations,” she said.

However, the Paramount Chief of Gogrial West County, Kuach North Payam, Luka Wol Mathuc, said some youth who move with arms pose a challenge to the implementation of the Marial-Baai Agreement.

“We have challenges as our youth move their cattle to Wau, Marial Baai agreement prohibited possession of guns in cattle camps and we observe that but our youth lost lives and cows from armed youth in Wau who were said to be SPLA-IO,” he said.

Chief Wol adds, “Other problems are hiring of water and grazing areas and we recommended that the two governments should provide police to be deployed in grazing areas. We also proposed that Jur youth from Wau be involved in the next conference which will be held in Wau because they are part of the problem.”

A cattle camp leader Mathuc Mangok Arol, said the governments are also to blame for challenges in the implementation of the agreement.

“The government sometimes complicates things because all these times there was no SPLA-IOs and our cattle used to graze in Alel without problems. Another thing we told them is the fixing of the prices of milk and meat, there is conflict in the prices and it has to be discussed,” Mangok said.

Warrap state Civil Society organization Alliance (WASCA) secretary of finance Rose Anyang has called both governments to address the issue of armed youth for peace to prevail peace in two states.

“As civil society, we called on the government to disarmed both cattle youth and those who claimed to be SPLA-IO in Wau grazing lands to allow free movement of cattle,” she said.

Participants included representatives from the payams, civil society, youth, representatives from the ministries of peacebuilding, local government, among others.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

At least 21 people died in attacks on villagers and nomads in Jebel Moon, West Darfur, during the past days. About 20 others were injured. Thousands of villagers fled to eastern Chad after their homes burned to ashes.

Misseriya tribesman Siddig Ibrahim told Radio Dabanga from the Chad-Sudan border that “a large group of heavily armed militiamen riding in four-wheel drive vehicles, on motorcycles and on horses attacked a number of villages in Jebel Moon in the end of last week”.

About 10 villages in addition to camps for the displaced in Jebel Moon burned to the ground. “At least 10 people died, and 14 others were wounded,” he said. “Thousands of people fled to eastern Chad, and are now living in the open in very poor humanitarian conditions.”

He said the people hold the local, state, and federal authorities responsible for the violence.

11 others killed

The Higher Pastoralists Coordination in West Darfur reported that 11 nomads were killed and six others were wounded in an attack in Jebel Moon.

In a statement on Saturday, the Coordination said that a nomad search posse was tracing stolen camels, when they were attacked by “an armed group”.

The statement said that “another group of armed militiamen” stole three camels in the area of Koro in northern Jebel Moon locality “at the same time”.

The pastoralists hold the West Darfur state government responsible for the violence and demand “the central government to reconsider the contents of the Juba Peace Agreement”.

Source: Radio Dabanga

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in all parts of Sudan yesterday, rejecting any negotiation or partnership with the leaders of the coup, and rejecting the agreement signed in Khartoum yesterday between Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, leader of the military junta, and Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, to return the country to democratic transition in terms of the Constitutional Document.

Military forces fired tear gas heavily at a number of peaceful demonstrations converging on the Republican Palace in Khartoum and Bahri El Muasasa.

Demonstrations continued in the vicinity of the Republican Palace amid hit and run between the military forces and the demonstrators, before withdrawing and joining the demonstrations in El Sitteen Street and Burri.

Khartoum witnessed huge demonstrations in El Sitteen Street, Burri, El Sahafa, and Jabra, and Omdurman witnessed processions on El Shaheed Abdelazim Street and others. Besides the huge marches in Khartoum North/Bahri.

The participants chanted slogans rejecting any negotiation or partnership with the coup leaders and demanding civilian rule.

Protest marches took place in Dongola, Atbara, Wad Madani, Sennar, Ed Damazin, Rabak, and El Obeid. In Darfur, demonstrations took place in Nyala, Zalingei, and El Fasher, and in eastern Sudan’s Port Sudan, Kassala, and El Gedaref.

More mass Marches of the Millions are planned for Thursday, November 25.

Casualties

The Socialist Doctors Association reported the death of protester called Yousef from El Sawra Block 13 in Omdurman from a gunshot wound to the head.

In a field report, the Association indicated that three protesters sustained various injuries, ranging from suffocation to a direct hit to the head with a tear gas cylinder, and a leg injury with live ammunition in Omdurman.

Five activists were wounded in Jabra as a result of live ammunition.

In White Nile state, student Mazen Abdelbagi was hit with a tear gas cylinder in the head during the demonstrations in Rabak.

The Unified Doctors Bureau announced that the military forces continued “their blatant attacks on hospitals and health facilities”. The statement said that tear gas was fired inside Khartoum Teaching Hospital, “without regard to the sanctity of the hospital and the injured and sick”.

Source: Radio Dabanga