‘China to loan South Sudan $8 bln’

South Sudan Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said Saturday that the money will finance agriculture, infrastructure, telecommunications and hydropower
projects.

“Details (of the projects) will be defined by the ministers of the two countries and by the Chinese firms in charge of the work,” Benjamin said.

The loan announcement comes just after South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir’s first official visit to China.

Kiir visited China on Wednesday amid an intensified crisis on the oil-rich border with Sudan.

In mid-April, South Sudanese forces seized oil-rich Heglig, which is internationally regarded as a part of Sudan, drawing days of deadly border clashes. However, on April 20, the Sudanese forces liberated and took control of the disputed Heglig.

Sudan accuses South Sudan, which split from the North in July 2011, of supporting anti-government rebels from its conflict-hit western region of Darfur as well as those fighting in Blue Nile and South Kordofan States.

South Sudan became independent on July 9, 2011, after decades of conflict with the north. The new oil-rich nation is one of the least developed countries in the world, where one in seven children dies before the age of five.

MSH/MA

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