New South Sudan tourism minister appointed

(eTN) – South Sudan President Gen. Salva Mayardit Kiir has last week put final touches on the first post-independence cabinet, after first creating 29 ministries before, on subsequent days, appointing the ministers holding the respective portfolios.

Retained in name and function was the Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism, which oversees the country’s national parks and game reserves and is in charge now of building a viable tourism industry.

The newly-appointed minister, notably not from the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM) and a coalition member party, is the Hon. Gabriel Changson, while the deputy minister is the Hon. Obuch Ojwok. Permanent Secretary in the ministry remains Dr. Daniel Wani.

South Sudan presently has 6 gazetted national parks and over a dozen game reserves, and conscious of the need to conserve wildlife as a valuable resource for future safari tourists, has banned hunting completely.

Presently, the most prominent of these parks is the Boma National Park from where a migration, second only to the Serengeti/Masai Mara migration of the wildebeest and zebras, emerges annually when as many as 800,000+ white-eared kobs, lechwe, and other plains game species emerge in search of pasture. National Geographic highlighted this natural wonder in their series “Great Migrations,” which already raised substantial interest among adventure tourists and investors wanting to set up tented safari camps and safari lodges.