The world?s newest capital, a ramshackle refuge

JUBA, Sudan — The world?s newest capital is a war-damaged city of tin-shack housing and bumpy roads, strung out along the steamy banks of the White Nile river."Juba might not look like Washington or London -- or even Khartoum, Kampala or Nairobi," said William Deng, a building material trader, referring to South Sudan?s regional neighbours."But it?s the capital of our new nation, and I?m proud of that," added Deng, whose shop is in the narrow dirt streets of the city?s Konyo-Konyo market, a key commercial centre.South Sudan?s capital Juba was left in ruins by decades of conflict, violence that drove its people to vote overwhelming to separate from the north, with formal independence to be declared on Saturday."We?re a baby state starting from nothing, but we?ll build it up," Deng said, waving at the bustling street crammed with traders.Entrepreneurs and jobseekers have poured into Juba in recent years, lured by profits from aid and oil dollars, be they southerners who fled during the war coming home, or neighbours from regional nations."Business is good and I can make a profit I can?t make back home," said Ismail Hussein, a vegetable seller from neighbouring Uganda."It?s not easy doing business but there are opportunities here to make good profits," said Kenyan cell phone engineer Wilson Oloo.Yet it is also a refuge for citizens from nearby countries, offering a new home to those fleeing persecution or conflict.There are Somali war fugitives, Eritreans escaping an autocratic government and a decades-long compulsory military service, and Congolese forced across the border by rebels."The business opportunities are good here, something we?d never have at home," said Robel Abraha, an entrepreneur from Eritrea."Juba beats Mogadishu," said Yussuf Siyad, a trader from Somalia's battered capital."The profits are good, although it is harder sometimes than I had hoped," he added.Siyad bought a corner shop formerly run by a northern Sudanese trader, who sold his business to return home fearing violence during the so

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