Monday, November 17, 2008

UNMIS & MONUC to reconstruct road linking S. Sudan and DR Congo - Riek Machar visits Kenya to discuss a proposed peace agreement between Uganda & LRA

November 12, 2008 (KHARTOUM) report from Anyuak Media by SRS - Road to Link UN Missions In Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo:
GOSS Vice President Dr. Riek Machar says he has reached an agreement with the United Nations Mission in Sudan to reconstruct the road linking southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Speaking in Nairobi on Friday, Dr. Machar said UNMIS will construct the road from Maridi in Western Equatoria state to Ri-kwamba on the border with the DRC.

MONUC, the UN mission to the DRC, has said it will also construct a road to the Sudanese border from the DRC side.

Dr. Machar said that apart from connecting Sudan’s UNMIS and the DRC’s MONUC by land, the road would facilitate transport and trade between Western Equatoria state and the DRC.

Dr. Riek Machar was in Nairobi to discuss a proposed peace agreement between Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Machar met DRC President Joseph Kabila at the meeting in Nairobi to talk about co-coordinating UN forces in Uganda and the DRC.

The two discussed the possibility of stationing some members of the Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Team (CHMT) with UN MONUC forces inside the DRC to monitor the movement and activities of the LRA.

CHMT is composed of senior army officers from Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, the DRC, Uganda, southern Sudan and the LRA.

The team was established in Juba to monitor the ceasefire agreement signed two years ago between the Uganda government and the LRA.
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Ministry of Transport to Complete Construction of Roads in South Sudan
November 7, 2008 (JUBA) by Juma John Stephen - The Ministry of Transport and Roads (Government of South Sudan), has signed a 4,312,239 million US dollars agreement with a Khartoum-based construction firm, Sutrac CAT Khartoum, to supply road construction equipment.

The Director of Roads and Bridges, Engineer Gabriel Makur Amuor, said that the money will be used to purchase equipment to complete the construction of all central trunk roads and all feeder roads connecting to the Payams and Bomas in South Sudan.

“The 2007 GoSS budget provided for the purchase of road construction equipment, comprising of five tippers, two graders, one water tank, one fuel tanker, one wheel loader, two excavators and a bulldozer, among others. These will see the completion and commissioning of roads in South Sudan”, said Eng. Makur.

Eng. Makur added that due to logistical obstacles, some of the equipment are still held at Port Sudan and will soon be cleared.

“We are working hard to ensure that we have all the equipment by the end of this year so that we can commence the construction of Nimule-Juba and Kajo Keji roads respectively”, he said.

The Nimule-Juba road will cost 120 million US dollars while the Kajo  Keji will cost 7 million US dollars.

Eng. Makur commended the World Food Programme for its continued support in the re-building of South Sudan, citing the world body’s generous provision of food and funds to upgrade the  Kaya – Rumbek road.
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Sudan Watch Ed: Cross posted to sister blog Congo Watch (where the subscribe by email is working - but isn't working for me at Sudan Watch - nor can I get Sudan Watch feed to work in my newsreader. If anyone reading this has subscribed to Sudan Watch via email and is receiving the emails OK (or not) please let me know by email or leave a comment here. Thanks.)

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