Wau

About Wau

Wau is a town, locally referred to as a city, in northwestern South Sudan on the western bank of the Jur River. It is the capital of Western Bahr el Ghazal region in South Sudan. It lies approximately 650 kilometres (400 mi) northwest of the capital, Juba. It is a diverse small urban center (town) and a trading hub. The city has been a municipality since 2012 and is governed by a mayor whom the state governor usually appoints.

The city consists of several neighborhoods, including Nazareth, Hai Fahal, Sika Hadid, and Daraja.

Wau was initially established by the French as Fort Desaix and later was established as a zariba (fortified base) by slave-traders in the 19th century. During the time of condominium rule, the city became an administrative center.

One of the first insurgent Anyanya attacks on the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) took place at the Wau barracks in January 1964.

During the Second Sudanese Civil War, Wau remained a SAF garrison town. It was the scene of extensive fighting in the spring of 1998. Battles erupted again in the town in the spring of the 1980s, killing several hundred people. This forced...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.