The regional dialogue conference for South Sudan’s greater Upper Nile region will now be held in the country’s capital, Juba on May 20, an official said Monday.
The national dialogue committee co-chair, Angelo Beda said the decision to relocate the conference from Malakal town to Juba city came after a technical committee surveyed Upper Nile region to see how feasible it was.
He said the committee visited Renk, Malakal, Melut and Bor towns, but found that they lacked conference facilities.
“We had a good and fruitful discussion, weighing all these obstacles and now they have approved to hold the conference of Upper Nile in Juba,” Beda told a news conference in Juba.
He said over 400 delegates are expected to attend the conference.
The conference in Upper Nile was initially set for March, but later postponed due to lack of access to the opposition-controlled areas.
In late February, opposition groups boycotted the conference in Bahr el Ghazal region, where citizens demanded for a federal system of government and allocation of land ownership to the government.
In December 2016, South Sudan President Salva Kiir launched the national dialogue initiative that seeks to reconcile and unite the East African nation torn apart by more than five years of civil war.