Officials of South Sudan are considering creating a new capital city for their newly created independent country. Declaring that the present main city of Juba will not be able to adequately accommodate the needs of a true capital, South Sudanese leaders are deciding if they should just enlarge and modernize Juba, built a capital near Juba, or pick another location which is better suited to the needs of a capital.
"A committee has been formed to look into a more suitable place for a capital … that is befitting an independent nation. There are so many things that Juba doesn’t have now in terms of services," said Anne Itto, from the South’s ruling party.
The independent country of South Sudan is scheduled to join the family of nations this coming June, after independence was overwhelmingly favored in a vote which took place this past January. Although the official results have not yet been released, preliminary numbers revealed that almost 99% of voters voted for secession from northern Sudan. The vote was made possible by an historic peace deal which was signed in 2005 after decades of brutal civil war over ideology, religion, oil and ethnicity.
Since the signing of the peace treaty, Juba has been growing steadily but in a less than orderly manner. Situated along the White Nile, it has played the role of the unofficial seat of the South’s semi-autonomous government, but now, as independence looms, a decision about the capital will have to be made soon.