Qualla: Wau https://qualla.com/wau-south-sudan en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/7/g/wau-south-sudan-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Wau https://qualla.com/wau-south-sudan Wau: Introduction https://qualla.com/wau-south-sudan/ Photo credit Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0. The train still exists, but barely. A single narrow-gauge line runs from Khartoum down to Wau, terminating at a station built when Sudan was one country and trains ran on schedules. Today the tracks lie mostly dormant, and Wau - a town of about 150,000 on the western bank of the Jur River - makes its living the way the Sahel has always made its living: cattle, trade, and the stubbornness of people who stay.

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Image: Bertramz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/7/g/wau-south-sudan-wp/s97g-wau-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Wau: Fort Desaix to Zariba to City https://qualla.com/wau-south-sudan/ Photo credit James Bol Bol Duer, CC BY-SA 4.0. The French arrived first, establishing Fort Desaix here in the 19th century as they pushed their colonial ambitions southward. Within a few decades the fort had been taken over by slave-traders who turned it into a zariba - a fortified thorn-fence stockade from which they raided ...

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Image: James Bol Bol Duer | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/7/g/wau-south-sudan-wp/s97g-wau-fort-desaix-to-zariba-to-city.mp3 0:06 2 full Wau: St. Mary's Cathedral https://qualla.com/wau-south-sudan/ Photo credit Enkaschau, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Cathedral of St. Mary in Wau was first built in 1905, making it older than the nation it now stands in. The current structure, built between 1951 and 1956, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wau and remains one of the most prominent buildings in town. Its twin bell ...

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Image: Enkaschau | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/7/g/wau-south-sudan-wp/s97g-wau-st-marys-cathedral.mp3 0:06 3 full Wau: A Town That Has Been Destroyed Before https://qualla.com/wau-south-sudan/ Photo credit Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wau has known war intimately. One of the first Anyanya insurgent attacks on Sudanese government forces happened at the Wau barracks in January 1964. During the Second Sudanese Civil War, the town was a government garrison; heavy fighting in the spring of 1998 and earlier battles ...

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Image: Bertramz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/7/g/wau-south-sudan-wp/s97g-wau-a-town-that-has-been-destroyed-before.mp3 0:06 4 full Wau: The People Who Stayed https://qualla.com/wau-south-sudan/ Photo credit Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wau has also given South Sudan some of its most recognizable figures. Alek Wek, the supermodel whose face helped redefine what high fashion could look like, was born here in 1977 before fleeing war with her family. Luol Deng, the former NBA forward who played over a decade for th...

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Image: Bertramz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/7/g/wau-south-sudan-wp/s97g-wau-the-people-who-stayed.mp3 0:06 5 full Wau: From the Air https://qualla.com/wau-south-sudan/ Photo credit Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wau reveals itself from altitude as a grid pressed against the Jur River's west bank, with the cathedral's twin towers visible even from considerable height. The airport runway, 2,500 meters of asphalt running roughly north-south, sits just east of the town. Five main roads radia...

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Image: Bertramz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/7/g/wau-south-sudan-wp/s97g-wau-from-the-air.mp3 0:06 6 full