Northern Uganda Buoyed by South Sudan Secession

Along the road that runs between Gulu in northern Uganda to Nimule on the South Sudanese border, the Pabbo trading centre has never been busier. Women dash frantically about with a variety of merchandise, which they sell to the countless travellers that tumble out of the buses and lorries that now ply the route each day.

Most of these petty traders once lived in a nearby camp for internally displaced people who escaped the violence and terror of the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency in northern Uganda. The camp, which at its peak had a population of 60,000, has since been closed down and its former residents have had to search for ways to earn a living.

Trading centres like the one at Pabbo are beginning to reap the benefits of increased trade between Uganda and South Sudan.

Christopher Ojera, a local leader in Pabbo, says that women that have been widowed by the country’s civil war can now feed, dress and send their children to school because of the increased demand for their goods.

In a May 2010 report, the International Crisis Group reported that, between 2006 and 2008, Ugandan exports to Sudan increased three-fold, bringing in 250 million United States dollars in 2008. Most of these exports went to South Sudan.

The increased trade has come as a direct result of relative peace in both South Sudan and northern Uganda.

In a referendum in January, the southern Sudanese voted overwhelmingly to secede from the north. Ugandans watched the process with anxiety unsure which way it would go and the impact it would have, particularly on the north of their country, which shares a border with South Sudan and has hosted Sudanese refugees in the past.

“Uganda’s geographical position in relationship with Sudan makes it impossible for it to escape from the internal affairs of that country,” wrote Dr Ssali Simba, the head of the political science department at Makeree University, in a paper he presented in Khartoum in October last 2010.

Four months after the end of the referendum, and just two months before South Sudan is due to become officially independent, the focus of many in northern Uganda has shifted to the practical benefits and opportunities that an independent South Sudan provides the region.

“Northern Uganda used to be the furthest point in Uganda, but with Ugandans now moving further and further into the Sudan, northern Uganda is likely to become central to Uganda as economic prospects shift,” Badru Mulumba, a Sudan analyst based in Juba, said. “We will see more of this as South Sudan becomes independent and more stable.”

In Gulu town, the hub of the Uganda-South Sudan trade, businessmen are optimistic of good times ahead

“Business has been good,” Shalu Kumar, an Indian trader who deals in motor vehicle spare parts and grinding mills, said. “I get many customers from South Sudan. I expect more business when the south becoming independent.”

In February, the Ugandan government announced that work will begin on upgrading and resurfacing the road between Gulu and Numule later this year. Work on the same road on the South Sudan side of the border has already begun.

The emphasis put on the construction of the road is testimony to the importance that both Uganda and South Sudan attach to it.

“Improvement of the road, which is expected to commence in August, will open up northern Uganda to the rest of the country and to South Sudan,” Dan Alinange, spokesperson of the Uganda National Road Authority, said.

Alinange says that construction of the entire road, which is jointly funded by the World Bank and Japan International Cooporation Agency, is expected to cost 100 million dollars.

In the past, during the rainy season, poor road conditions have cost Ugandan traders millions of shillings, since trucks often become stuck in the mud for days on end.

“Traders suffered and vegetables would rot,” said Tusuubira Farouq, a Ugandan engineer who heads the department of computer science and engineering at Bridge University in Juba. He added that the new road will boost the flow of both goods and services.

Besides trade, ordinary Ugandans have been getting jobs in South Sudan’s growing economy, but there are signs that opportunities for them may be limited in future.

“Technical skills are lacking in South Sudan,” Alphonse Otto, who runs a restaurant and construction business in Gulu, said. “This is an opportunity for Ugandans with such skills.”

“South Sudan needs a lot of medical workers, civil and electrical engineers and to an extent teachers,” Farouq, from Bridge University in Juba, added.

Although Ugandans who look for jobs in Sudan are expected to have work visas, many of those that IWPR spoke to have found employment in the grey economy.

“A lot of Ugandans travel and work informally in South Sudan,” Ugandan businessman Ivan Tweheyo said. “They just travel to the lorry parks in Kampala, Koboko or Gulu and load their goods in the lorries and go to [Juba]. But with South Sudan becoming independent, there will be better organisation on the part of the government there, which will make life hard for many Ugandans and other foreigners working there illegally.”

Tusuubiria, from Juba’s Bridge University, agrees that independence will limit opportunities for Ugandan workers.

“As South Sudan has become more secure, southerners have started to return home to rebuild their country,” he said. “Sudanese manpower has expanded, and that has shrunk opportunities for east Africans and [in some areas like] the public service shut it out completely.

“Since 2006, foreigners are no longer found working in government ministries. Independence will shrink employment opportunities for Ugandans even more, but stability would open the way for cautious investments.”

Moses Odokonyero is coordinator of IWPR’s Uganda radio project.