Sudan, South Sudan agree to resume river transport

JUBA – Governments of Sudan and South Sudan have agreed to resume the river transport which was halted in 2011, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the deputy chairperson of Sudan’s Sovereign Council said.

Daglo who is better known as Hemeti was speaking to reporters following a meeting with President Salva Kiir Mayardit in Juba on Tuesday. He said he and Kiir agreed to resume the resumption of river transport in the near future.

“We have agreed with president Salva Kiir that it was important for our two countries to resume river transport in addition to land and air transports,” Daglo told reporters adding that a committee will soon be unveiled to start preparations.

The river transport stopped in 2011 following the declaration of South Sudan’s independence. At the time, the government of Sudan accused Juba of supporting SPLM-North rebels.

Since 2019, South Sudan government has been mediating to end of Sudan’s civil which has been ongoing in the restive region of Darfur, Southern Kordofan state and the country’s Southern Blue Nile.

The Sudanese belligerents on Monday signed a peace deal that provided for the dismantling of all the rebel groups and their immediate reinstatement into the Sudanese Armed Forces which has led Sudan since the ouster of Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

However, two main factions of the Sudanese rebel groups have rejected the South Sudan-brokered deal in rejection to the participation of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo whom they have accused of taking part in the genocide in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains.