Traders in Aweil town of Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State are counting losses, after the town mayor demolished illegal business structures in the main market.

On Wednesday, Aweil City Council launched a crackdown on illegal erected shops to open feeder roads in the area.

This comes after the town mayor, Garang Deng gave the traders two months ultimatum to remove their structure or lose them.

On Thursday, Garang directed the city council to bulldoze the structure.

“We are only implementing an order of opening the streets. We are taking back the space looted from the street and our target are the violators”, Garang spoke to Eye Radio from Aweil on Friday.

Reacting to the matter, the traders whose structures were bulldozed argue that the mayor did not notify them of the demolition.

They also expressed disappointment over the manner the demolition exercise was executed.

The traders are now appealing to the state authorities to provide them with a piece of land to continue doing business.

“The thing that hurts me is that all the women who were working are currently on the street after the shops were demolished”, Joseph Kurwol, one of the traders lamented.

Another trader also says;

“We wrote a letter to the Mayor to delay the demolishing because we are in the rainy season. He said that he would respond to us, but we were surprised by them. They are supposed to give us a deadline until January”.

One of the developmental mandates of the city council is to widen and rehabilitate feeder roads in the city.