Western Equatoria State Governor Gen. Alfred Futuyo Karaba has blamed the protracted area conflicts for the delay in the construction of the state university.

 “Our people, especially the students would have been seeing different shapes of Western Equatoria State University and other projects we launched earlier this year but you see how conflicts stopped everything?” Governor Futuyo posed as he talked to The City Review yesterday in a phone interview from Yambio.

Futuyo said there were a lot of different developmental projects launched but all have been delayed due to the conflicts and targeted attacks on state authorities.

The projects include the construction of hospitals, Yambio Freedom Square shelter, roads, and bridges.

“All of the projects I mentioned to you are very important to our people in the state but we hope for good things,” he said. 

However, he revealed that they resumed some of the projects last week.

“The good news is that we resumed some of the projects last week starting with the construction of the state ministry of education headquarters and others [are] expected to follow after,” he said.

He said the resumptions of developmental activities in the state could only be possible when peace returns to the area.

Asked where they get support from, Mr. Futuyo said, “we are using [the] little money state gets to ease constructions of projects.”

“Of course, we do not have oil here, but the non-oil revenues that the state government collects are what we use for the development,” he added.

Preach peace

He called on the public to distance themselves from the conflict and embark on state development.

Futuyo added that it was high time for the state as well as the country to avoid hate speech and embark on service delivery to the citizens.

“…especially to my cabinets in the state, I have been telling them that it is important for us to embark on development service delivery.”

Upon his appointment this year, the Western Equatoria State Governor Futuyo launched the constructions of Western Equatoria University, Mundri West County and Mvolo County hospitals, and Yambio Freedom Square Shelter, including the maintenance of major roads across the State.

In June, the violence erupted in Tombura County between armed youth which was suspected to be James Nando’s forces, and SPLM/A-IO in the area. Since then the fighting has claimed dozens of lives and displaced thousands and later followed by targeted attacks on the state senior officials.