South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The Ethiopian Ambassador to South Sudan Nebil Mahdi Abdallahi on Wednesday expressed his government’s commitment to commence the construction of the major highway linking to South Sudan.
“The finance agreement clearly stated that the road to commence, it should be ratified by the council of ministers and the parliament so that Ethiopian minister of roads can commence this project,” Mahdi told Dawn in an interview in Juba.
Mahdi’s remarks came in the aftermath of the minister of information, communication, technology, and postal services Michael Makuei, saying last week that the construction of the South Sudan-Ethiopia highway has stalled on the Ethiopian side.
Mahdi said that the road project will commence as soon as the South Sudan council of ministers and parliament approve the loan from the Ethiopian government for the road construction.
“I want to briefly say that there is no stalemate from the Ethiopian side and Ethiopia is ready to start the construction of the road soon,” he said.
In May 2023, the Ethiopian government and South Sudan signed an agreement in Juba to construct the Paloch – Mathiang – Maiwut – Pagak road, which connects Western Ethiopia with Northeastern South Sudan.
Under the agreement, the Ethiopian government is supposed to inject a loan of 734 million U.S dollars for road construction which will be repaid by South Sudan through oil.
Mahdi said that the Embassy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is working seriously on this project which will connect the economic integration between the two countries.
“We took the responsibility on two sides to build the roads with the loan from the Ethiopian government and this is the first of its kind for Ethiopia to build a road outside its territory,” he said.
The road upon completion will provide access for South Sudan to the Port of Djibouti and allow it to export oil or fuel by tanker to Ethiopia.
Mahdi said that this vital project was initiated by the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed and President Salva Kiir because the two leaders don’t want to wait for a loan or finance from the World Bank or IMF to fund this project.
