JUBA, April 13 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's Ministry of Defense will commence construction of roads in the country in a bid to cut costs of hiring private companies and also help ease access during the current rainy season.
Michael Makuei, Minister of Information, told journalists that ministry of defense's engineering department was given funds to procure major equipment to start road construction to ease access during the rainy season before the capital is cut off from other parts of the country.
"Ministry of Defense engineering department is planning to establish a fleet of equipment for the construction of roads and the value of these equipment was for the sum of 45,548,000 million U.S. dollars," Makuei said after the cabinet meeting in Juba.
He disclosed that the money will be for the purchase of several equipment that will help the cash-strapped government to continue with construction of roads rather than hiring expensive private companies.
"The construction of a tarmac road at present of one kilometer is at least 1 million U.S. dollars per km. So if we can acquire equipment and use our army as the technocrats to do the job it will be cheaper and will cover all the roads," he disclosed.
Makuei said the defense ministry will work with the Ministry of Justice, Finance and Ministry of Roads to expedite the process.
South Sudan has only one major tarmacked road - the Juba-Nimule road, constructed with the aid of the U.S. government after it gained independence from Sudan in 2011.
Makuei also revealed that they are ready for the third round of the peace revitalization talks on April 26 in Ethiopia and added that they will be receiving in Juba delegations from African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) on April 15 and the Council of Ministers for the region body Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) on April 17.
"All these delegations are coming on the follow up of the chartered diplomacy before the parties go in for the third round of the peace revitalization talks," Makuei said.
South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013 after President Salva Kiir sacked his former deputy Riek Machar leading to fighting between mostly Dinka ethnic soldiers loyal to Kiir and ethnic Nuer soldiers loyal to Machar.
The violence has killed tens of thousands leaving 4 million people living as refugees in neighboring countries.
The efforts by regional leaders to revive the 2015 peace agreement shattered in the wake of renewed violence in July 2016 are yet to bear fruit as they have been indefinitely suspended after the warring parties failed to make headway.
