‘Use army patrol to escort truckers into South Sudan’

(allafrica.com)

The regional private sector body has advised the EAC Secretariat to convene the Sectoral Council on Interstate Security to consider deploying a regional joint armed patrol for escorting and protecting truck drivers, to end the truck border crossing impasse.

The EABC condemned the harassment and killing of a number of truck drivers traversing into the country in the past few weeks, which touched off a strike by Ugandan drivers delivering goods to South Sudan,l despite that it is part of the East African Community.

“A joint regional armed patrol is a quick solution to guarantee peace and security for truck drivers, business people and their properties. This will facilitate transportation of essential goods amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” the council said in a dispatch.

Back in April, the EABC praised South Sudanese authorities as well as their Ugandan counterparts for moving to escort truck drivers, and it is now urging Interstate Security ministers to adopt a regional monitoring mechanism.

Such a unit would analyse and monitor progress or emerging issues on trade and security in the region and especially on the volatile border points between the two countries, the dispatch elaborated.

 “Peace and security are prerequisites to social and economic development in the region. Insecurity increases the cost and time of transporting goods, risks people’s lives, obstructs border-crossing on trade and negatively impacts the competitiveness of the EAC bloc,” the statement intoned.

 Insecurity along the Nimule/Elegu border route to Juba has currently stalled movement by around 1056 trucks, stranded at the Elegu border post. Part of the problem is that this immobility risks intensifying the spread of COVID-19 among the border communities as well as the truckers, it stated.

A stranded truck incurs losses of more than $1,000 each day, while releasing trucks and drivers falling victim to militia assaults ranges between $10,000 and $20,000 at present, it further noted, pointing out that some drivers even get killed.

In 2019, South Sudan exported goods worth $6.8m and imported $225.9m worth of goods from EAC Partner States. Intra-regional exports grew by 0.6 percent in 2019 to $3.2bn, from $2.8bn a year earlier, it added