Khartoum-Aweil-Wau rail network to reopen – VP Abdelbaggi

JUBA – South Sudan Vice-President, Hussein Abdelbaggi, has said that the Sudanese government has agreed to reopen the Khartoum-Aweil-Wau rail network whose operation was halted in 2010.

The rail network which was constructed in 1961 was interrupted several times by the South-North conflict. It was reopened in 2005, to eventually stop again in 2010, a year before South Sudan’s independence.

Speaking to reporters in Khartoum on Monday, Abdelbaggi said he met the chairperson of the Sudanese Transitional Sovereign Council, General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, in Khartoum and discussed with him a number of issues including reopening of the rail line.

“I had a fruitful meeting with the head of the Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council Lt. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, at state house in Khartoum,” he told reporters at the presidency in Khartoum.

“During our discussion, we renewed our efforts to promote trade and peace by resolving issues of border conflict between South Sudan and Sudan. The meeting also focused on capacity building in education sector. This aims at  making education institutions the center for innovation and generation of ideas through fully equipping schools with necessary materials for high-quality teaching,” he said.

The senior South Sudan government official said the Sudanese government has agreed to reopen the Wau-Aweil-Khartoum rail line which he said will help the two countries in their efforts to achieve economic growth.

“The government here in Kharthas agreed to reopen the Wau-Aweil-Khartoum railway network,” he said. “This will help improve our effort for economic integration between our two beloved people and will ease the effort that we are exerting each day to make a economic progress.”

Hussein is currency in Khartoum. He travelled on Friday along with presidential advisor on security, Tutkew Gatluak, to attend a ceremony organized by the Sudanese government to celebrated a South Sudan-mediated peace agreement.