South Sudan to build new capital

South Sudan, which as of yesterday had officially voted for secession and will formally declare independence in July,  has also decided to build a new capital city, Sudan Tribune reports:  Dozens of countries are expected to recognize the new independent state and will need pieces of land in which to establish their respective embassies. Juba, ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

South Sudan, which as of yesterday had officially voted for secession and will formally declare independence in July,  has also decided to build a new capital city, Sudan Tribune reports

South Sudan, which as of yesterday had officially voted for secession and will formally declare independence in July,  has also decided to build a new capital city, Sudan Tribune reports

Dozens of countries are expected to recognize the new independent state and will need pieces of land in which to establish their respective embassies.

Juba, which was established almost a century ago, by British colonial administrators, as the headquarters of former Southern Sudan’s three regions of Greater Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile and Equatoria, is said to have been disorganized, particularly for the last six years during its fast growing expansion. Officials say this is because of endless wrangling over jurisdictions of its administration by different levels of government, coupled with lack of standardized housing and poor surveying.[…]

In the resolution passed on Friday in the Council of Ministers meeting chaired by President Salva Kiir Mayardit, the government reached the decision to relocate the capital to a "befitting" new location elsewhere in the South.

The minister of information and official spokesman of the government, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, told the press that the "new capital would befit the new state of South Sudan." He said the decision was not against any community or authority, but in the interest of the new nation.

 

 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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