Nzara is a town in

Western Equatoria State Western Equatoria is a state in South Sudan. It has an area of . Its capital is Yambio. The state was divided into counties, each headed by a County Commissioner. Western Equatoria seceded from Sudan as part of the Republic of South Sudan on ...

. It lies to the northwest of

Yambio Yambio is a City in South Sudan. Location The City is located in Yambio County, Western Equatoria State, in southwestern South Sudan, close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its location lies approximately , by road, west ...

by road, and is 25 km (15m) from the

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

with the

DR Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. Nzara was industrial center of the Azande Scheme also known as, Equatoria Project Scheme during the Anglo-Egyptian colonial period. The Government of South Sudan has since 2006 intended to revive the agro-industrial complex. Nzara was the site of the world's first recorded outbreak of the

Ebola virus disease Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after becom ...

. In five months starting in June 1976, 151 people in the region died of the disease.

Military base

Nzara served as the operational headquarters of the 4th Division of the

Uganda People's Defence Force The Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF), previously known as the National Resistance Army, is the armed forces of Uganda. From 2007 to 2011, the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated the UPDF had a total strength of 40,000–4 ...

(UPDF), the Ugandan contingent in Operation Rudia II. This was part of the regional campaign military against the

Lord's Resistance Army The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), also known as the Lord's Resistance Movement, is a rebel group and heterodox Christian group which operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of th ...

(LRA). After the LRA defeat at Camp Swahili, the UPDF ceded overall control of the operation to the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and moved the bulk of its forces to Nzara in March 2009. About 2000 UPDF troops remained in the DRC, north of Faradge, and Nzara-based attack helicopters supported them in engagements against increasingly concentrated LRA forces. When LRA Major General Caesar Acellam was captured in May 2012, he was flown from Djema in the Central African Republic to Nzara where he gave a televised interview. According to a 2012 published report, Nzara has housed one of the four Combined Operations Fusion Centers where intelligence and operations have been coordinated among the anti-LRA coalition.

References

{{reflist Populated places in Western Equatoria