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Sudan: SPLA Throws Out Uganda Traders
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The Monitor (Kampala)
11 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Tabu Butagira
Kampala
Authorities in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, have closed the busy Customs Market dominated by Ugandans as alleged persecution of foreign nationals in the city peaked this week.
Hundreds of Ugandan and Kenyan traders who eke a living by vending food items and general merchandise at the now demolished bazaar have been thrown onto the streets where they are reported to be "very desperate".
Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers reportedly rummaged through and later tore down the market early this week. "The demolition of Customs Market has displaced many Ugandan [traders] and left them jobless and distressed," a Ugandan living in Juba said in an e-mail sent to Sunday Monitor on Friday.
Many of the vendors have been spending nights in improvised stalls at the market, in part to guard their merchandise. Now, the sudden destruction of the market spells doom for them as they will have no place for accommodation and transacting business.
The State Minister for Regional Co-operation, Isaac Musumba said he could not comment on the matter because he was yet to get formal briefing from Mr Busho Ndinyenka, Uganda's consul in Juba.
Officials of Government of South Sudan (GoSS) were not readily available for comment due to communication glitch on the Gemtel mobile telephony network in Sudan.
The phone of Mr Earnest Onge, the SPLA/M Principal Liaison Officer in Kampala was switched off.
It was not clear what prompted the Sudanese to pull down the market without providing an alternative site for the vendors. However, mistreatment of foreign nationals, including Ugandans by the Sudanese hosts is not new.
Last September, this paper exclusively reportedly on the predicaments facing the Uganda business community in Juba with female traders alleging rape by armed personnel on night patrol. The traders also complained of harassment, victimisation, and cash extortion by immigration officials, military commanders and ordinary citizens.
Minister Musumba, who last October led a team of five Ugandan ministers to Juba to discuss growing mistreatment of Ugandan nationals living in south Sudan, said he hopes for peaceful co-existence of Ugandans and Sudanese inside Sudan to reciprocate the Ugandan gesture.
"Over-all we have an excellent relationship with the Government of South Sudan and I believe [the attacks on Ugandans] are not state-inspired," Mr Musumba said.
Sunday Monitor has learnt of an increasing wave of violent night robberies sweeping through Juba, a phenomenon that has worried expatriates working in the dusty city and sent some scared non governmental organisations (NGO's), including Save the Children - UK, packing.
Uganda airline companies; Royal Daisy and Air Uganda lost unknown amounts of cash and other valuable items when gunmen raided their Charlstone Travel office recently. The armed gangsters terrorising Juba city (at night) reportedly move in groups of 10-25 people and mainly target NGO premises, big shops and other such moneyed companies. They also lift off money safes.
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Security sources inside Sudan say at least 38 robberies have been registered in the last one month, overstretching the ability of the struggling SPLA/M or GoSS officials to assert their full authority over the region they fought for two decades to control.
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