President Salva Kiir on Friday evening sought to declare that Raja County would be merged with areas neighboring it to the east, including Aweil West and North counties.
This would split the country from its historical neighbor Wau County, which is also the capital of Western Bahr al Ghazal, the state to which it currently belongs.
Kiir’s proposal calls for the creation of a new state called “Lol State” through the merger of the three counties.
If implemented, this would significantly impact the politics of Western Bahr al Ghazal, including the governor himself, Rizig Zacharia, who hails from the Kreish ethnic group, which inhabits primarily Raja County.
The change would also represent an end to the historical division of the Bahr al Ghazal region into a primarily ethnic ‘Fertit’ state (Raja County lies in a region once known to many as ‘Dar Fertit’) and primarily ethnic Dinka states.
Meanwhile, a rump of Western Bahr al Ghazal State, Jur River and Wau counties, which witnessed Balanda-Dinka ethnic violence in 2012, would remain together as “Wau State.”