South Sudan’s National Ministry of Health promised to rebuild the Abyei Teaching Hospital and train medical staff to bridge a health service gap in the contested Abyei area between Sudan and South Sudan.
The announcement came in a meeting in Juba between the ministry and a delegation of traditional leaders representing the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms.
Kuol Alor, one of the Ngok Dinka chiefs in the delegation, told Radio Tamazuj Sunday that the ministry pledged to renovate the Abyei hospital and provide medicine in the same way it does to South Sudan’s ten states.
He said the ministry also agreed to take five people from Abyei for training in medicine, pharmacology, x-rays, and other areas of health in neighboring countries including Sudan.
In late May, a group of traditional leaders from Abyei headed by paramount chief Bulabek Deng Kuol met with the South Sudanese national health minister Riek Gai where they expressed concern about deteriorating health services in the area.
The nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms of Abyei in October last year voted to join South Sudan, but neither Sudan or South Sudan recognized the unilateral referendum.
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