Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The government is yet to strike an agreement on whether Juba City will remain the country’s capital.
According to the First Vice President Dr Riek Machar, the government could install a mayor but this would only happen once there is an agreement on the location of the country’s capital: yet to be decided between Juba and Ramciel. He said that Ramciel would have to be designated as a national territory before it can be annexed as the capital.
“The mayor in Juba is the mayor under the Central Equatoria State, and that is why it always brings up the discussion on Ramciel. This is when you will have a national territory; you will curve it out, and then it will be administered by a mayor”
“But currently, Juba is the capital of Central Equatoria and there is no agreement to say we should change this to be the capital of South Sudan. So Central Equatoria hosts the national government.”
Machar was responding to a concern raised by Ayuen Alier Jongroor, chairperson of the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Commission (DDR), who questioned why the government does not have a mayor.
Alier claimed that someone had informed him that the South Sudanese government had no foundation and was not aligned with the States, citing the lack of the office of the mayor. According to Alier, the current Juba City Council works under the Central Equatoria State government and not the national one.
Ramciel, which is situated on the western bank of the White Nile, is about 250 kilometres (155 miles) north of Juba. Although there is no paved road between Juba and Ramciel at the moment; it takes less than two hours to reach there.
A decision to choose a new capital for South Sudan was voted on at the beginning of February 2011 by what was then the autonomous Government of Southern Sudan. One of the two potential locations for the site was Ramciel.
The late Dr. John Garang pledged to make Ramciel South Sudan’s capital. Barnaba Marial Benjamin, the former government spokesman and Information Minister at the time of South Sudan’s independence in July 2011, confirmed that the country was still considering building a new capital at Ramciel.
On September 2, the cabinet voted to designate Ramciel as the location for a planned city, which would be separated from Lakes State. Marial estimated that the relocation would take three to five years to complete and would be done in stages. The government estimated that it would cost $10 billion to build Ramciel as a modern city.
Additionally, during the visit of King Mohammed VI of Moroco to South Sudan in 2017, the two countries signed at least nine agreements; one of which was for the building of Ramciel—the intended capital of South Sudan.
Morocco also promised to pay for the technical and monetary requirements of building Ramciel, beginning with $5.1 million in feasibility studies.
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