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JUBA/YEI - 15 Apr 2021

Traders urge gov't to urgently open Juba-Yei road

Traders in Central Equatoria State are calling on the government to reopen and provide security along the Yei-Juba road for free movement of goods and people.

Last month at least 10 people were killed in three separate ambushes along Juba-Yei road.

Earlier, the Mayor of Juba City Council Kalisto Lado Faustino held a meeting with the organized forces and they agreed to improve the security within Central Equatoria State. 

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, one of the traders who bring goods from Juba and Uganda to Yei town, Kiden Mary Samuel says the people of Yei continue to suffer as long as the issue is unresolved.  

“I was asking our government to provide for security so that we can also come to Juba and take goods from Juba to Yei at the moment people in Yei are suffering. We have no food and there is hunger. The situation is not good. We ask the government to give us good security and also they should provide us with permanent peace so that civilians will move freely,” Mary added.

According to Julius Bogi, who transports goods from Juba to Yei, the opening of the Juba-Yei road should be made a priority to avoid the continued suffering of residents in the area.

"Now the road is closed, we always take food to Yei for their consumption, and am appealing to the government to open the road so that people from Yei will be receiving the goods that we take to them,’’ he said. 

William Ladu, one of the drivers for public transport along the Juba-Yei road, said the government should provide security saying this is their main source of livelihood.

“We have not yet started working because the government has not reopened the road. We are asking the government because this is what we survive on. This Yei road is very important for all of us if there is any problem it’s not our concern let them solve their problem for us we are innocent,” he complained.

However, the Yei Police Commissioner Yoasa Lujang Kamba says that the SSPDF has not started escorting vehicles because of a recent major reshuffle within the army.  

“The delay is due to some changes in the command of the army as you know. Recently the chief of the general staff was removed, the chief of staff had given an order for deploying the army on the roads so that the vehicles can move,” he said.

He noted that the issue will be sorted as soon as the new army chief settles.