UN peacekeepers begin work on a “reconciliation” road in South Sudan

6 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

South Korean peacekeepers from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) have begun construction of a road in eastern South Sudan “to build public confidence and enhance reconciliation” in full swing. intensification of ethnic violence in the Pibor administrative area, where thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes in recent weeks.

The 115-kilometre highway will connect Pibor with neighboring Labrab, as a prelude to a series of works to resurface the connections between remote towns in the east of the country in an operation that the UN hopes will end next April.

These reconditioned roads will be essential during the rainy seasons in South Sudan, since the current routes end up being impassable due to the fall of the water.

For the commander of the South Korean engineering mission, Colonel Jong Sil Park, such infrastructure work has been conceived with the purpose of peace.

“Good roads promote trade, allow members of different communities to come together and speed up the delivery of humanitarian aid that people need so much,” he said in a statement published this Friday by the United Nations.

All this occurs at a time when the UN has denounced the forced displacement of at least 30,000 residents of Pibor in recent months due to clashes at the end of last year between members of the Murle and Nuer communities, which have left nearly 60 dead. .