A Postal Services official says on Friday that many mails and parcels wrongly addressed as Juba-Sudan are being detained in Khartoum due to lack of an international hub for South Sudan but the mail will be redirected though Cairo.
The international postal service to South Sudan stopped operating regularly on April 8, 2012 Ð when the interim period expired Ð and since then most letters and parcels are not arriving at their destination.
Deputy Director of Postal Services and International Relations Lokosang Lemi Lokosang explained to CRN that Khartoum detained mail wrongly addressed as Juba-Sudan and demanded payment of customs although the mail was in transit.
Rev Lemi added that South Sudan sometimes receives mail via Ethiopia and Kenya.
He explained that the Ministry of Postal Services asked the Kenyan government to use Nairobi as international hub for South Sudan but it declined arguing that Kenyan Airways was very expensive.
Rev Lemi announced that on Thursday the ministry discussed with the Egyptian Ambassador to South Sudan a possibility of using Cairo as hub for international mail and during February Egyptair should start flying mail to Juba.
The Deputy Director said the Postal Services are inviting their Egyptian counterparts to visit Juba and sign a memorandum of understanding to make Cairo the postal hub for South Sudan.