The Western Bahr el Ghazal State Luo Youth Union has petitioned the state assembly for the second time about the naming of the newly constructed bridge over Jur River.
In 2020, the Chinese government offered to build a new bridge across the Jur River. In March 2021, the China Tianyuan Construction Group Company Limited together with China Aid for Shared Future started the construction of the new bridge with the agreement and other documents referring to it as “Jur River Bridge.”
However, one year after construction started, the national council of ministers unilaterally endorsed a new name, Clement Mboro Bridge, in honor of a deceased prominent South Sudanese politician who hailed from Wau County.
Before that, a youth body from Jur River County wrote a petition to Governor Sarah Cleto Rial accusing her of being behind the change in the bridge’s name and demanded she revoke her proposal to the council of ministers in Juba.
Earlier this week, after seeing signage bearing the name Clement Mboro Bridge being installed at both entrances to the bridge, the Luo Youth Union became agitated and said the move is intended to wipe out Luo from Wau. They charged that even the old bridge has been renamed from Jur River Bridge to Wau Bridge and the new bridge is now named Clement Mboro.
On Tuesday, several youths peacefully marched to the state assembly to present a second petition rejecting the name Clement Mboro Bridge.
“The curtain stage managing manipulating of and ultimately causing violence, conflict and insurgence in the state is not the government’s ultimate aim as an end in itself,” the petition read in part. “If an early warning system of signs of brewing trouble is anything to go by, this is one of them.”
Speaking to the press after handing over the petition to the speaker of the state parliament, Santino Madut, the head of the committee said the matter of the new bridge’s name is dragging the community into a new conflict yet the Luo youth are advocating for peace.
“We the Luo Youth Union of Bahr el Ghazal wrote a letter of petition about the renaming of Jur River Bridge to Clement Mboro Bridge. This issue is creating a problem in the society and we the Luo youth are advocating for peace,” he said. “The problem of land grabbing is now all over the country and you find that the owners of land are being neglected and others are given rights to their land. This one is causing problems.”
Madut warned the state government against making the issue of the new bridge’s name a trigger for conflict.
“We have been dying through recurrent conflicts and even during slavery so let us not manufacture a war because of this issue of renaming the bridge,” Madut added.
Responding to the petition, Western Bahr el Ghazal State Legislative Assembly Speaker Mohameden Abakar Mohameden assured the Luo youth that his office would look into the matter. He also tasked the Luo youth to provide his office with evidence indicating the new bridge was referred to as Jur River Bridge in the agreement between the Government of South Sudan and the Chinese government before its construction.
“I will work through this petition and it will be referred to the committee concerned because we have eight committees in the assembly. The one responsible for roads and bridges, national resources, and infrastructure will investigate, analyze, and follow the issue with the executive,” he said. “Our role here in the assembly is to receive and listen to any complaint coming from the community and call the executive.”