New bridge at Jur River constructed by Chinese government - Courtesy

The five-member committee formed to address the dispute over the naming of a new bridge in Jur River of Western Bahr el Ghazal has commenced consultations with the communities.

The committee is headed by the Second Deputy Speaker of the Revitalized Transitional National Legislature, Kornelio Kon Ngu and deputized by lawmaker Mark Nyepuoch.

The committee formed in October 2023 by the state leaders arrived in the state capital, Wau on Wednesday.

Political leaders from the region constituted the team to mediate the issue after Jur River County youth protested the naming of the life-link bridge after late veteran Clement Boro.

They said the naming of the strategic bridge would jeopardize their cultural heritage and encourage land grabbing.

“We have come from Juba representing the administration and politicians in the state linked to the issue proposal name of the bridge from Jur River to Clement Mboro,” Lawmaker Kornelio Kon, the committee chairperson told reporters in Wau town.

“We have heard out problems and as we are concern about things in the state, we decided to come to the state so that we can find out all mistakes happened and that is why we come in the state.”

According to Kon, the delegation will meet all the communities and the state authorities to find out whether there was consensus on the naming of the bridge on not.

“We met governor, and we gave our program of our mission, we will meet all people including chiefs, intellectuals, youth and we will meet the committee of the state security, council of ministers, so that we will find out the truth if the name of the bridge proposal was a consensus.”