South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir. FILE PHOTO | AFP

South Sudan has accused Kenya of grabbing its land, setting the stage for a boundary row that dangers derailing commerce between the 2 nations.

Juba says Kenya has “illegally” taken 42 factors of its borderline at Nadapal, a settlement on a key crossing level and commerce route between the 2 nations.

South Sudan’s Deputy Overseas Affairs and Worldwide Cooperation minister, Deng Dau Deng, mentioned Kenya and Uganda are claiming a part of the South Sudan borderline, mentioning that Juba is not going to cede an inch of the territory.

The settlement seems inside Sudan on UN maps.

The encompassing territory has an extended historical past of combating between pastoralist teams and bandit assaults.

Mr Deng mentioned that Juba has reported Kenya and Uganda to the African Union over the alleged border encroachment, in a row that would unsettle the East Africa Group buying and selling bloc if it escalates.

The EAC widespread market, which consists of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, DR Congo, Tanzania and Uganda, was arrange in 2010 to permit the free motion of products and other people throughout borders and is likely one of the most superior buying and selling blocs on the continent.

South Sudan is one in all Kenya’s fundamental export markets, importing items value Sh17.1 billion final yr, based on official information that present commerce is tilted in favour of Nairobi.

“South Sudan has fairly quite a few areas which have been entered into by our neighbouring nations and we now have been discussing them within the context of the African Union,” Mr Deng is quoted as having mentioned by native media in South Sudan.

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“We now have to once more reiterate our dedication that there isn’t any piece of land that will probably be taken from South Sudan.”

Kenya’s Overseas Affairs Cupboard Secretary, Alfred Mutua, and the Principal Secretary within the ministry had not responded to calls and SMS enquiries from the Enterprise Every day on the time of going to press.

The border dispute with South Sudan comes at a time Kenya is at loggerheads with Somalia over a maritime border in part of the Indian Ocean believed to be wealthy in oil and gasoline.

Maritime row

Kenya in 2021 rejected the ruling of a high UN courtroom that determined principally in favour of Somalia within the maritime row.

Somalia, which welcomed the ruling, filed the case in 2014 on the UN’s highest courtroom coping with disputes between states.

Ought to the dispute escalate, South Sudan could limit Kenya from utilizing the Nadapal border, in the end hurting commerce.

The border dispute comes at a time when South Sudan has threatened to switch enterprise to the Djibouti route, in what may deny Kenya income on 1.1 million tonnes of cargo that the Mombasa port handles yearly.

Mombasa has been the primary route for all consignments destined for the landlocked nation and South Sudan now says the Port of Djibouti is shorter.

South Sudan is second after Uganda in the usage of the Mombasa port, accounting for 9.9 per cent of transit volumes.

Uganda accounts for the lion’s share of 83.2 p.c whereas the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Rwanda account for 7.2 p.c, 3.2 p.c and a couple of.4 p.c, respectively.

Learn: South Sudan pushes Ruto to make use of Joho agency in SGR contract

Kenya has been providing incentives to Juba, together with land in Mombasa to construct a dry port to ease the price of doing enterprise between residents of the 2 nations.

In September, South Sudan mentioned it acquired three acres of land in Djibouti for the development of a dry port because it sought to chop reliance on the Port of Mombasa.

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