An illegal checkpoint manned by security forces in the Bahr el Ghazal region. 2021. (Photo: Peer Schouten and Ken Matthysens report).

Warrap State Governor Francis Marial Abur has ordered the removal of all illegal checkpoints and roadblocks along the highways in compliance with resolutions of the 8th Governors Forum.

Marial directed law enforcement agencies to remove all the illegal checkpoints along the roads connecting the state with other neighboring regions.

Warrap Minister of Information William Wol Mayom said the move implements the 8^th Governors’ Forum resolution on checkpoints and roadblocks to end highway extortion and help lower commodity prices.

Mayom said the government has so far removed two key checkpoints connecting Warrap State and neighboring Northern Bahr el Ghazal, and Abyei Administrative Area.

These checkpoints were Kuajok entry point and Wunrok checkpoint of Twic County.

Mayom added that the governor has also ordered the removal of other checkpoints in all six counties including the ones in Tonj South County.

“H.E. Governor Francis Marial Abur has executed the written Governors’ Forum recommendations that all the checkpoints should be removed from the states so that the economy can be improved,” he said.

“On Friday, H.E. (Marial) showed a sole of responsivity by himself standing at Kuajok to remove the checkpoint at the entrance from Kuajok to Gogrial West, and again in Wunrok, Twic County there is also a checkpoint.”

“This order has been extended to all six counties of Warrap State for it to be free from checkpoint whether security or any other mean of road block is removed in the state.”

A researcher from the Danish Institute for International Studies found in a 2021 publication that illegal checkpoints taxes in South Sudan were the most expensive in the world.

Since independence in 2011, the number of checkpoints has nearly doubled and checkpoint taxes have increased by 300%, the study found, adding that these ‘transit taxes’ are mostly illegal.

For two years, the study mapped 319 checkpoints along major trade routes in South Sudan, of which 253 (79%) are roadblocks and 66 (21%) river checkpoints.

In December 2024, delegates to the 8^th Governors Forum resolved numerous communiques including calling on the national government to immediately pay civil servants, remove illegal road blocks and ban illegal taxes to boost the economy.