The Unity State ministry of road and bridges has confirmed that the World Food Programme (WFP) last Wednesday started rehabilitation works on a road linking the state to neighboring Sudan to ease the movement of humanitarian assistance.

Unity State roads minister Habiba Luk Gatluak told Radio Tamazuj over the weekend that the WFP rehabilitation of the roads linking Sudan and South Sudan in the state will ease delivery of humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people who have been affected by floods.

"It is true that WFP is renovating the unity roads and if it reaches Unity State and Sudan, it will help most of the vulnerable population displaced by the floods to receive food items from Sudan,” Minister Luk said. “The problem is that there is still too much water and getting marrum for road renovation is very hard.”

She added that WFP promised the state government that the road rehabilitation works will be completed by the end of January 2022.

According to the roads minister, commodities flown in from Juba to Unity State cannot meet the demand of the local population and despite flooding in the state, additional commodities and necessities still come from Sudan through the Karasana, Panthou, and Panakuac roads. 

“The flooding is not like before and the water levels have dropped but there are still floodwaters on the sides of the main highways,” Minister Luk said.

She added that all the roads linking Mayiandit, Leer, and Koch ceased to function due to flooding.

Roads minister suspends director general

In a related development, Minister Luk confirmed that last Monday she suspended the director-general in her ministry, Engineer Gatwech Bipal Both, and replaced him with Engineer John Yiel in an acting capacity.

She said she has suspended Engineer Bipal from office due to lack of cooperation on the latter’s part, his other commitments of working with an NGO, insubordination, and revealing affairs of the state government on social media.

“There are so many reasons for the suspension of Engineer Gatwech Bipal Both from his duties. He used to post affairs of the government to the public through social media,” Minister Luk explained. “Secondly, he is a saboteur and always gossip against me with nonsense and I warned him about this several times until I made a decision after consulting with State Governor Monytuil Wejang and I suspended him because he is an appointee by the governor.”

She added: “I have replaced him with another Engineer, John Yiel, who is from within the ministry of roads and bridges and not from outside.”