S. Sudan’s Upper Nile state relocates headquarters to Renk town

June 5, 2015 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s Upper Nile state government has resolved to relocate its headquarters to Renk, a town farther north near the Sudanese border, in the light of sustained fighting between rebels and government troops over the control of the oil-rich state capital, Malakal.

In the meeting held on Thursday, it was decided by the council of ministers in which it resolved to move to Renk, according to state information minister, Peter Hoth Tuach.

“The state capital [Malakal] was seriously destroyed during the recent fighting and the government currently has no buildings to operate in,” said Tuach, explaining to Sudan Tribune in a phone interview the reasons compelling the already displaced government to move farther away from battlefields.

“Renk has got buildings that the state government will work in, the same buildings will also be the accommodation for the officials and electricity supply in the area is stable,” he added.

Tuach said thousands of citizens of Upper Nile state, apart from the civilians sheltering in United Nations’ (UN) Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites, had already been displaced to areas near Renk.

He said the government would now remain in Renk whether the rebels ceased attacking Malakal or not because, he explained, “the people of Upper Nile are displaced to Renk area.”

This would be the third time the state government of the war-ravaged Upper Nile has been relocated due to over year-long fighting between forces loyal to president Salva Kiir and the opposition forces loyal to former vice president, Riek Machar. Senior government officials last year relocated to Renk, but moved back to Malakal, in a seriously unstable situation as the town changed hands several times.

When fighting resumed in the town in April and rebels recaptured the capital, the state government officials fled to Melut town near Paloch oilfields and operated from there. However, the state governor Simon Kun Puoch fled to the national capital, Juba, where he was issuing directives from a distance.

Rebels have also claimed to target Renk town, which came under shelling several times in the past few months. But when government forces took control of Wedakona on the west bank of the White Nile, it became an ease in securing the border town.

Rebel sources renewed claims Renk would soon join the list of their priority targets together with the two remaining oil producing oilfields of Paloch and Adar where government troops have been deployed to defend it.

(ST)