$600m worth of Unity Support Fund projects unfinished in South Sudan
September 18, 2011 (JUBA) – South Sudan will take responsibility for unfinished projects funded by the Khartoum government in its failed attempt to make remaining united with the North an attractive proposition to the South.
In July South Sudan gained independence after a referendum, agreed as part of a 2005 peace deal with Khartoum in which both sides agreed to make unity attractive.
In 2008, three years before the referendum was conducted, Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir established the Unity Support Fund program to implement several projects across South Sudan, especially in the five states that share borders with North Sudan. They were due to be finished in December 2010 ahead of the South’s self-determination referendum in January 2011.
Over 98 percent of Southern Sudanese voted to separate from the rest of Sudan, after conflict that had raged almost continuously since independence from the Anglo-Egyptian condominium in 1956. The issues which triggered and sustained the conflict were economic and political marginalisation, identity, religion and oil.
The projects ranged from building roads, river transport, railways and basic services of schools, health, water and sanitation which were estimated to cost at least $600 million (1.6 billion South Sudan pounds).
The sources of funds identified by the national government included contributions from the oil revenues from the disputed region of Abyei, with the former Government of National Unity (GoNU) in Khartoum contributing 50 percent and Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) in Juba contributing 25 percent. The remaining 25 percent was due to be made up from loans issued by Khartoum. Some selected projects such as roads and water projects were to be financed directly by the Presidency.
Most of the unity-promoting projects were not completed, while others did not even commence. For instance, only 127 kilometres of the 895 kilometres ‘Peace Road’ project, which would have connected Renk with Juba passing through Malakal in Upper Nile state and Bor in Jonglei state, has been completed.
According to the report presented to the government’s economic cluster meeting by the Deputy Secretary of the Unity Support Fund, Charles Majak Alier, the Khartoum government declared some of the projects had been successfully implemented. However, since South Sudan’s independence the North has terminated the funding of unfinished projects.
In the meeting of the economic cluster this week chaired by the Vice President, Riek Machar, it was resolved that more information was needed about the unfinished projects including the feasibility studies, designs and costs so that the projects could be considered by the Council of Ministers.
(ST)