Border Clashes Stall LAPSSET Road Project to Juba

(JUBA) – The longstanding alliance between South Sudan and Uganda built on trade, security cooperation and cross border ties is under pressure following deadly clashes along their shared frontier in mid July.

On 15 July 2025, Ugandan authorities reported that South Sudanese troops crossed into Fitina Mbaya village in Uganda’s Yumbe District, setting up camp nearly two kilometres inside Ugandan territory. Kampala claims the forces began harvesting crops, seizing livestock, and appropriating property, provoking a confrontation that escalated into a two hour gun battle on 28 July. The exchange left one Ugandan soldier dead, two injured, and five South Sudanese personnel killed, including soldiers, a police officer and a prisons officer.

Local communities bore the brunt of the fallout. More than 500 Ugandan villagers from Yumbe were displaced, their homes torched and their livelihoods disrupted. Some took refuge at Goboro trading centre with no food or shelter. Residents say such displacements are recurrent whenever the border dispute reignites.

The contested boundary between Uganda and South Sudan has remained unsettled since colonial times, with around 30 villages claimed by both sides. Although bilateral committees have previously been formed, demarcation has stalled, leaving space for flare-ups that risk undermining decades of cooperation.

The latest clashes prompted high level military diplomacy. Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, visited Juba on 9 August to meet President Salva Kiir. The two sides later agreed to form a joint investigative committee tasked with identifying causes of the conflict and preventing its recurrence.

The tensions are not new. In May 2020, clashes in Yumbe killed four South Sudanese soldiers, while months later, firefights in Pogee, Magwi County, led to deaths on both sides. Arrests and retaliatory detentions have also shaped recent disputes, such as the 13 Ugandans held in Kajo Keji County in September 2023.

While the current outbreak has subsided, the economic risks are significant. Uganda is South Sudan’s largest trading partner, supplying food, construction materials, manufactured goods, and fuel. Disruptions at the border threaten billions of South Sudanese Pounds in trade. At today’s official exchange rate of 1 US dollar to 4,600 South Sudanese Pounds, the value of Uganda’s annual exports to South Sudan, estimated at over $500 million (SSP 2.3 trillion), underscores the stakes for both sides.

Infrastructure projects are particularly vulnerable. The World Bank funded 330 kilometre road linking Lokichar in Kenya to Nadapal at the South Sudan border remains incomplete. The final 11 kilometres from Nadapal to Nakodok have been stalled after some South Sudanese communities opposed continuation without border demarcation. This road is a critical segment of the Lamu Port–South Sudan–Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET), designed to open Juba’s access to global trade routes.

For now, goods from Kenya reach South Sudan primarily through Malaba in Uganda, adding costs and delays. Traders have already warned that continued uncertainty risks undermining confidence in South Sudan as a reliable destination for cross border commerce.

The government in Juba has acknowledged that border disputes are a wider regional issue. On 5 September, Presidential Press Secretary David Amuor said an ad hoc border committee is engaging Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan through diplomatic consultations and technical reviews. South Sudan hopes these efforts will secure coexistence, ease tensions, and protect cross border investments.

Local leaders and community elders, however, argue that only final demarcation will deliver lasting peace. Without it, the Uganda–South Sudan economic partnership may remain hostage to political disputes and community level conflicts, despite the strong historical ties binding the two neighbours.

Deadly Border Clash Threatens South Sudan’s Biggest Market