Telecommunications company MTN has resumed its operations in Kapoeta East County after nearly eight years of being off-air due to insecurity.

According to local authorities, after the 2013 crisis, the MTN and Vivacell telecommunications network providers could not access the area for fear of insecurity.

Locals in Narus, the headquarters of Kapoeta East County in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria state expressed joy saying this will ease service delivery in the area.

“We are now very happy because when the network was off we suffered a lot in terms of communication no way for someone even if you are sick you can’t talk to the doctor to come for rescue. Now even the business people are happy they had been suffering until majority migrated to Kapoeta due to lack of network," Martha Nangolio a women leader in Narus told Radio Tamazuj.

Takany Lolit a youth leader in Kapoeta East County says the area had been neglected since felt his area was neglected after a long time without communication 

“We are now connected with people in the whole world. If there is an issue with us we can share with people who are relevant to both government or organizations, we will share the information through these connections,” Lolit says. “It was very difficult, we were like in the world where people are not recognized, we were not even getting information even to the neighbors like if something happens to you at night you will not even call for rescue."

Meanwhile, Loteng John the area controller of MTN in Narus center confirms the old systems at the networks were replaced with new ones including generators and Solar’s introduced to ensure 24 hours operations

“They change the whole system here, all the old generators were changed, they fixed all these parts with Solar’s with new generators because we now have Solar and generators. Our place here has hot sun in which generators will be a back-up," he said.

Kapoeta East County Executive Director Justine Juma also confirmed that the area between Kapoeta and the Nadapal border is now connected.

“Our community is very happy because now from Kapoeta to Nadapal here the MTN network is full, this network started working this February. both MTN and Vivacell stopped since 2013 until now we had suffered a lot due to this network problem," he said. 

The official adds, "MTN could not cone here due to insecurity. weave been using Safaricom from Kenya but we have suffered a lot because our currency is not equivalent to the Kenyan one. Network problems made life and business very difficult here."