The administration of NGB shut down Aweil-Meiram route due to insecurity.

On Monday, the administration of South Sudan’s Northern Bahr el Ghazal State announced the closing of the Aweil-Meiram route, which links South Sudan with Sudan, citing instability as a precautionary measure.

Last Friday, an armed Sudanese man named Abdalla Abu-Haja Al-Naim shot and murdered two local government employees in Aweil East County’s Warguet Payam, Santino Akech Angok and Peter Arol Yai.

The assassin is alleged to have had a grudge towards the government officials he killed for stealing his five cows by an SSPDF member two years earlier. According to reports, the dead local authorities decided in favor of the military, much to the disgust of the Sudanese guy.

On Monday, the state’s communications minister, William Anyuon Kuol, explained that the primary road to Sudan would stay blocked until further notice.

“We have immediately blocked the crossings (Aweil-Meiram trade route) until the suspect is apprehended so that civilians have no problems,” he stated. “The government made this choice because residents are dissatisfied, and if transportation operations continue along the trade route, numerous crimes may occur, which we want to prevent.”

Citizens and businessmen in the border towns of Awarwar and Majok Yinh Thiou say closing the commercial corridor would cause people to suffer and raise commodity prices.

“There would be severe consequences since the route serves both Sudanese and South Sudanese people, particularly those in Northern Bahr el Ghazal who rely on Sudanese commodities,” said Dut Deng. “South Sudan has been severely flooded, which means there is no locally grown grain.”

According to Mou Akot, an Awarwar merchant, the Aweil-Meiram route is shorter than the Aweil-Juba road, and products transported over the latter road are much more costly.

“The road shutdown would make life tough for civilians since items from Juba are excessively costly owing to dollar shortage,” he added.