by Denis Elamu
JUBA, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Some travelers have shunned commuting along South Sudan's major Juba-Nimule road which remains the commercial lifeline for the war-torn country due to increased insecurity.
According to authorities in Juba, more than 14 people were killed on June 9 and scores injured after Sudan People's liberation Army-in opposition (SPLA-IO) rebels allied to former first vice president Riek Machar attacked an army convoy escorting a fleet of vehicles on the road. Rebels however said there were 40 deaths.
Isaac Mashete, the driver of one of the major public bus companies, ECO Bus that routinely carries travelers from Juba to Kampala told Xinhua on Wednesday that some travelers have resorted to flying over with commercial flights to the border town where they then catch the bus enroute to East Africa.
"The number of travelers to Uganda has reduced due to risk of death on the road. Some of the buses start off the journey from Juba to Kampala with few travelers. Other travelers now use planes up to Nimule where they wait for us," Mashete said after navigating the anxious journey to the border town of Nimule near the Ugandan border of Elegu.
He said the journey that used to take two and half hours from the capital to the border town now takes six hours due to insecurity as no private vehicle enroute to Juba leaves Nimule without an army escort, leaving passengers to endure tortuous waiting moments.
Mashete whose bus company once came under a deadly gun attack that resulted into arson in 2016 along the highway said that despite reaching his destination safely occasionally, the June deadly attack this year still worries him since a senior army officer at the rank of Brigadier was killed along with his armed juniors.
"I reached Uganda safely, there was nothing at all but only the other day when they killed the army (SPLA) brigadier and some other bodies were found in the bushes that leaves me wondering," he told Xinhua after arriving in Kampala.
"There are some blackspots on the road at the Pageri, Moli and Jebellein areas and you have to pray to God to get through," he decried.
The recent attack occurred at Moli area, some 40 km from Juba while several daring and brutal attacks have since occurred at Jebellein and Pageri areas leaving authorities in security circles dismayed after having beefed up both army and police patrols daily.
The South Sudan army spokesman Col. Santo Domic Chol told Xinhua that they were aware of the risks and costs when such gun attacks on vehicles occur on the major commercial lifeline road of the country, which links trade with neighboring countries like Kenya and Uganda from whom South Sudan import most of the goods.
"We will improve security to make sure that commercial vehicles along the major commercial lifeline of South Sudan is protected," Chol said, adding they will expand security patrols to ensure civilians are not soft targets of gun attacks.
However, Juba-based security analyst at the Sudd Institute Augustino Mayai told Xinhua the government needs to do much more to protect its trade interest and civilian lives along the highway since it poses major security threat that dents further the weakened import economy.
"It poses a major security threat to the country that needs to be dealt with. It's incumbent upon them to establish more forces along the road to ensure there is constant protection to civilians," he said.
The oil-dependent South Sudan imports nearly 90 percent of goods ranging from food, beverages and fuel from her East African neighbors that have seen their once huge revenue earnings from exports to the volatile nation dwindle amid the more than three years of conflict.
