From New Vision

Trade between Uganda and South Sudan has grown from $5m (about sh12b) in 2002 to $392m (about sh980b) in 2011.

There was also an attempt by the Ugandan Government to construct a market in Juba to take part in the trade, but it encountered legal and financial problems, which eventually saw the land that had been allocated to Uganda re-allocated to another developer by the Equatorial state.

It is against this background that legislators on the foreign affairs committee have asked the Government to engage South Sudan in the fight against harassment and indiscriminate assault of Ugandan traders by South Sudanese.

The committee, which held a meeting on Tuesday to consider its draft report on the recent working visits to Uganda’s missions abroad, noted that although the two countries enjoy strong bilateral and diplomatic relations, Ugandans in South Sudan continue to face hostile reception, harassment, violence and death.

“Although we partly attribute this to the weak government institutions in South Sudan since the country is emerging from a long period of  war, we have appealed to our foreign ministry to engage its counterpart so that it can prevail over this violence and harassment of our people,” the committee chairperson and Vurra county MP, Sam Okuonzi, told New Vision.

The committee further learnt from the foreign affairs ministry that there is a commission engaging in discussions with the local authorities in Moyo district on suggestions of re-demarcating the border.

“The South Sudanese are accused of occupying the equivalent of one sub-county deep inside Uganda, and the local authorities are hostile to any suggestion of re-demarcating the border,” he said.

Written by Umaru Kashaka | Read more at New Vision