The executive of the Alliance for Land Rights South Sudan and youth from Jur River County in Western Bahr el Ghazal State have strongly condemned the proposal by South Sudan’s council of ministers to change the name of the Jur River Bridge to Clement Mboro Bridge.
Last Friday, the council of ministers in Juba endorsed a proposal to rename Jur River Bridge in Western Bahr el Ghazal state to Clement Mboro in honor of veteran politician Clement Mboro who was a former interior minister in the then Sudan.
Alfred Angok Uliny, the executive director of the Alliance for Land Right South Sudan condemned the move and blamed Governor Sarah Cleto for spearheading it, and said it should have been discussed and decided at the state level.
“I condemn the approach used by the governor to table the proposed name of Jur River Bridge which is undergoing construction. The announcement come on Saturday when it was discussed in the council of ministers in Juba approving the proposed name as Clement Mboro Bridge,” Angok said.
“We as the land alliance are concerned about the formula used by the governor which violates the decentralized system of government,” he added. “The approach should be that the state government table the proposed name in the state parliament so that the representatives of the people discuss the name that they wish to be given.”
Angok warned that the move will create conflict within the state due to the river’s historical name in favor of Jur since its construction in 1973.
“This will create conflict within the state because the river was named Jur River and the bridge was also named Jur River bridge in 1973.” He said. “To rename it, consultations have to be done with stakeholders and the state parliamentarians because if it is not handled well, then this will create conflict within the state.”
Angok urged the national minister for roads and bridges to withdraw the proposal to rename the bridge till more consultations are done.
For his part, the Jur River County youth chairperson, Gabriel Dhal Yak, warned that the youth will not accept the new name and said the river was named due to the presence of the Luo ethnic group settlement along the river.
“We will never accept that name to be changed. When this bridge was named during the British, it was because of the presence of Luo settlement along this river,” Dhal said.
“If the government decides to change this name, then this is already an indicator that the government is creating conflict between the communities.”
Meanwhile, Aldo Gok, another youth from Jur River County, said they are not against the recognition or remembrance of Clement Mboro but that it should not be imposed on the bridge.
“Our reaction does not mean that we do not value his (Mboro’s) contribution to his entire community during his time but currently the construction of the new bridge is because the old one was about to collapse and we do not see the need to change the name,” Gok said.
Construction work on the new 1.84-kilometer bridge along the Jur River started on 31 January 2021 and is slated to be completed by July 2023.
The Tianyuan Construction Group Company Limited and the China Aid for Shared Future are working on the bridge as a donation from the Chinese government to the government of South Sudan.
The old Jur River Bridge was built in 1973 by the Sudanese government under then-President Jaʿfar Muḥammad al-Nimeiri.