Friday, July 22, 2011

South Sudan: Juba grants access to Somalis

South Sudan has finally allowed people of Somali origin to enter its territory after a two week row that threatened trade and diplomatic relationship with the newest African state.

Hundreds of traders and truck drivers who have been camping at the Nadapal border, some 30 kilometers from Lokichoggio town were on Thursday allowed access to Juba after new regulations barring members of Somali origin were relaxed.

“Somalis of Kenyan origin can now freely enter Southern Sudan after and transact their businesses,” said Patrick Muriira, Turkana West District Commissioner.

They are however required to produce their national identity cards or passports to prove that they are Kenyans.

However, the new regulations introduced for security reasons is rigid to Somalis of non Kenyan origin.

Traders who have been barred from entering South Sudan said they have been forced to incur extra costs by hiring non-Somali drivers to transport their commodities to the country in order to sustain their businesses.

“It amounts to extra costs and business risk to hand over goods to a second party as some of them can not be trusted,” said Musa Mohammed, a trader at Lokichoggio town.

Most Kenyans including those of Somali origin have flocked South Sudan in search of new business opportunities.

At the same time the number of refugees from South Sudan is on the increase due to socio-economic factors.

“Some of the refugees escape into the country due to domestic feuds and forced early marriages,” said Mr Muriira.

But some of the South Sudan people are back into the country to pursue education and entrepreneurship skills to strengthen their businesses.

Kakuma camp in Turkana County is home to 15,000 South Sudan nationals most of whom have expressed willingness to return home.

The camp has a total of 72,000 refugees with 40,000 being Somalis while the rest are from Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Burundi.

Mr Muriira said the government has also established an Immigration office at Nadapal on the Kenya-Southern Sudan border to promote trade and boost security.

He said the government has constructed a 51 housing unit at Nadapal for Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Public Health, Police among other government departments.

The premises, he said was handed over to the government by the contractor last week.

“Plans are also under way to construct more police units, administrative blocks to house various government departments and a military barracks at Nadapal region,” disclosed Mr Muriira.

Source: The Daily Nation

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