18 October 2013 - Vehicles with much-needed goods began arriving in the Western Bahr El-Ghazal capital Wau today, after Chinese engineers opened up a road that had been closed for two weeks.

More than 300 vehicles were stuck on the road between Wau and the Lakes State capital Rumbek following heavy rains and flooding. The road is the only route from Juba to Wau as well as to the Warrap and Northern Bahr El-Ghazal capitals Kuajok and Aweil.

An UNMISS Chinese engineering team, led by Lt. Col. Li Qingfeng, began repairing and clearing the road with assistance from the Mongolian battalion yesterday.

The 36 men and eight vehicles, including four jeeps, two armoured personnel carriers and an excavator, first pulled vehicles out of muddy craters. They then built dams along each side of four damaged road segments to prevent further flooding.

The engineers cleared the craters, filled them with dry murram (reddish, clay material) and compacted the surface, testing it until heavy trucks could pass.

The rescue came just in time for drivers who had been sleeping and cooking food under their trucks.

“I have already been here for 10 days,’ said Joseph Deng, who was on his way from Yambio to Wau, when the engineers arrived. “I have nothing to eat now. I cannot move forward or back.”