AU and South Sudan sign post-conflict reconstruction agreements

November 14, 2012 (JUBA) – The African Union Liaison Office in South Sudan (AULOSS) and its implementing partners have signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) on post-conflict reconstruction and development in the young nation.

The first agreement, signed on Monday between AULOSS and South Sudan Development Organization (SSDO) on 12 November, reportedly caters to a 2-months project on improving hygiene and environmental sanitation services for the Juba prison.

“The objective is to ensure provision of adequate sanitation services and improved hygiene practices for the prisoners and improve the lives of prisoners through appropriate sanitation services to meet basic needs and prevent hygiene and sanitation related diseases,” partly reads the AULOSS statement, also extended to Sudan Tribune.

South Sudan attained its independence last year after over two decades of a bloody civil war. An estimated 2.5 million people reportedly died during the war, with over 4 million displaced and several properties destroyed.

The other agreements, according to the AULOSS, were completed with the Health Ministry in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria state on Tuesday.

The two MoUs, it said, specifically focused on a project for the construction of a female ward in Chukudum hospital, which will reportedly be the first maternity fitting in Lanya County. However, the second phase of the project, it notes, will target Haforiere health center, built using AU funding in 2011.

“The female ward in Chukudum hospital will see the construction of a four-room design that will include a waiting room, maternity ward, delivery room and the genecology room,” further says the AULOSS statement.

Currently, South Sudan has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world. The country, according to statistics from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), experience more than 2,000 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

(ST)