Trucks escorted to Juba, expected to ease high prices of goods

Hundreds of trucks stuck at Elegu near the Nimule border over fears of insecurity began snaking to Juba after the security officers were deployed along the road over the weekend.

But the breakthrough came after shortage that had triggered market panic inflating the prices of goods. The City Review made spot-check in Juba, South Sudan, and ascertained that prices of commodities had shot up.

At the time of writing this article, a tray of eggs was sold at SSP6,000 up from SSP2.500 and 750ml of bottled water was sold at SSP150 up from SSP100.

A kilogram of sugar rose from SSP600 to SSP800 while ten litres of cooking is now traded at SSP15,000, a dramatic rise from SSP 10000. These price changes have come into effect just within two weeks that truckers downed their tools over insecurity. Business commentators said the trend could continue if the trucks remain stranded at the border for more days.

The Chairperson of Freight Forwarder and Transporters Association Emmanuel Kachuol warned of inflated prices in the market due to scarcity of basic commodities if no remedy would come forth.

“If this situation continues, it will have a lot of implications on South Sudan because the country is landlocked, which means we are not connected to a port outside. Most of our goods come from Mombasa and Tanzania port,” Kachuol lamented.

He warned that traders also risked making losses because more perishable goods will not make it to the market.

The concerned Freight Forwarder urged the Juba and Kampala government to intervene into the standoff as soon as possible to enable truckers deliver goods to Juba before they get ruined.

Kachuol, being the Chairperson of the Association connecting Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan, said he contacted the relevant authorities in the country, to try rescue the standstill.

The transporters association for Kenya and Uganda last week issued a communication informing truck drivers not to enter South Sudan citing insecurity along the major highways of Nimule and Kaya, Juba-Yei road. This came after killing of five people along the same road. Ten others were also murdered along Juba-Yei road earlier and one Fuso bus was burnt to ashes.

Interventions

The SSPDF Chief of defense forces Gen. Johnson Juma Okot visited the Juba-Nimule road incident area recently to assess the situation. He re-affirmed the readiness of SSPDF to offer protection to commuters along the major highways in the country.

“We have come here to deploy our forces from now onwards they will be here to make sure that the road is secured,” Gen. Okot said in a statement to the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Cooperation (SSBC).

Mr. Kachuol assured traders of their efforts as they engage the three governments to bring a quick solution.

“We want to assure all the business community that we have taken this case seriously. We are in discussion with our government and the regional government together,” Kachuol assured.

The SSPDF Acting Spokesperson Breg. Santo Domic told City Review that the military command started to deploy troops along Juba-Nimule, Kaya and Yei road.

“In the current situation SSPDF have resolved to station forces on those roads and the forces will be further reinforced heavily. The reinforcement has started since last Friday April 2, and on Sunday the Chief of defense forces went to the site of deployment.

The Acting Spokesperson however, declined to reveal when the trucks are expected to be escorted by SSPDF to Juba.

“We are not escorting trucks from Uganda territory, that is not our mandate. But the escort that I am talking about is when the trucks are leaving our territory then we will escort them from Juba to the points of SSPDF until they reach the border,” Breg. Domic said.

No solution

The decision to offer military escort to truck drivers, whether be fro or to the country, is reminiscent of 2016 – 2017 situation when insecurity along the Nimule – Juba Highway was rife.

As truck drivers refuse to come to Juba from Elegu entry point, some members of business community in Nimule said they already started experiencing hike in prices of consumable goods. It is uncertain when the trucks will be leaving Elegu to Juba, Peter Aring, a business person said prices of commodities have gone up immediately.

“Yes, as we talk now here in Nimule things now started to increase because there are no goods coming from Uganda for one week since those drivers refuse to come to Juba,” Aring said.

The 192-km Juba-Nimule road, which is the only tarmacked highway connecting South Sudan to Uganda border, acts as the major route for country’s imports. Its construction commenced in 2007 and was completed in 2012, funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) following the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between Sudan and South Sudan.

Reported by Joseph Loful