Business
Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan launch construction of massive port
However, conservationists fear that monster earth movers and dredgers will destroy the mangroves and plough ship channels through coral reefs that are crucial fish breeding grounds.
South Sudan’s Kiir said his country, locked in a furious row with neighbor and former foe Sudan, was looking to the Lamu port and its infrastructure to unleash it from dependence on only oil.
“For South Sudan, it is a vision to long-term security. The backbone of our infrastructure that will allow us to end our reliance on oil extraction,” said Kiir.
“It is a vision whereby in the future you will be able to board people and freight cargo in the morning in Juba and be in Lamu that same afternoon.”
South Sudan has no pipeline or refinery and depended on Khartoum to export its oil. It has now shut down production accounting for 98 percent of its revenue in protest at Sudan’s alleged confiscation of its crude.
The huge project will however have to overcome the threat of bandits in northern Kenya, Al-Qaeda-allied Somali rebels operating dangerously close to Lamu on the other side of the border and pirates preying on the region’s maritime traffic.
Copyright 2012 AFP.
