Smooth all the way: Main supply route joining Malakal to Melut ready for use

unmiss south sudan malakal melut road rehabilitation mission mandate protection of civilians indian engineers support revitalized peace agreement

UNMISS engineers have rehabilitated the main supply route between Malakal and Melut. Well worth rejoicing.

21 Jan 2019

Smooth all the way: Main supply route joining Malakal to Melut ready for use

Janet Adongo

It’s all systems go in Upper Nile, South Sudan, following the completion of the rehabilitation of a main supply route linking Malakal to Melut – two hundred and five kilometres away.

It took Indian peacekeepers serving with the UN Mission in South Sudan a little under two months to complete the task as part of its mandate to protect civilians and support the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

The commanding officer of the Indian Horizontal Military Engineering Company, Lieutenant Colonel Amit Sirohi, said the challenging task could only have been successfully achieved through strong collaborations. 

“I must admit that because of the continuous support from all three agencies that is the United Nations, the government of South Sudan and above all the people of South Sudan, we were able to complete the work well ahead of the deadline given to us.”

The rehabilitation involved leveling and grading the surface to make it passable for both heavy and light traffic, a strategic move set to save both the peacekeeping mission and humanitarian agencies their already scarce resources which would otherwise had been used for costly air transportation of aid and manpower.

Acting Governor John Odhong Adiang welcomed the development and thanked the peacekeepers for their timely interventions.

“The task has been well accomplished and in the shortest possible time period. As the government, we will support the mission in the provision of marram so that you can extend the road rehabilitation even further, beyond Melut.”

The new, smooth route is expected to make the movement of goods and services faster and cheaper, hence lower the cost of living and improve access to basic necessities. Increasing the interaction of different communities is also part of the peacekeeping mission’s mandate to support the revitalized peace process.