Twenty three of the 1000 tractors donated by the office of South Sudanese president Salva Kiir have arrived in Western Bahr el Ghazal state capital Wau, one year after their purchase.
Kiir first announced the purchase of the tractors in a speech on 18 March 2015 during a rally in the capital Juba. The tractors arrived in Wau from Juba yesterday.
The minister of agriculture in Wau, Santino Uyu Madai, said the arrival of the tractors is important amid hunger in the state.
He said twenty of the tractors will go to his ministry, two to the University of Western Bahr el Ghazal, and one to the Agricultural Research Center.
“We have received these tractors and now our responsibility is to fight food insecurity,” he said, adding that officials and citizens should work together to open up wide agricultural areas.
Western Bahr el Ghazal has 65,000 people in food insecurity crisis, the lowest of any South Sudanese state besides Western Equatoria, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification System, which monitors hunger in South Sudan.
Read Radio Tamazuj’s comprehensive coverage of Kiir’s tractor deal here.