Juba () is the capital and largest city of South Sudan. The city is situated on the White Nile and also serves as the capital of the Central Equatoria State. It is the world's newest capital city to be elevated as such, and had a population of 525,953 in 2017. It has an area of , with the metropolitan area covering . Juba was established in 1920–21 by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in a small Bari village, also called Juba. The city was made as the capital of Mongalla Province in the late 1920s. The growth of the town accelerated following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, which made Juba the capital of the Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan. Juba became the capital of South Sudan in 2011 after its independence, but influential parties wanted Ramciel to be the capital. The government announced the move of the capital to Ramciel, but it is yet to occur. History Under the Khedivate of Egypt, Juba served as the southernmost garrison of the Egyptian army, quartering only a handful of soldiers. Disease was common; soldiers often fell ill due to the malaria, meningitis and blackwater fever that was prevalent in the region. Explorers and campaigners (Sir) Samuel and Florence Baker used the nearby island of Gondokoro as a base during their expeditions to what is now South Sudan and northern Uganda from 1863 to 1865 and 1871 to 1873. The present city of Juba was established on the site of a small Bari village, also called Juba, where the Church Missionary Society (CMS) had established a mission and the Nugent Memorial Intermediate School in 1920–21. In the late 1920s, Anglo-Egyptian officials ordered Bari residents to relocate so that a new town could be constructed to serve as the capital of Mongalla Province. The site was chosen by Anglo-Egyptian officials partly because of the presence of the CMS Nugent Memorial Intermediate School there, and partly because its proximity to river transportation on the Nile. Major construction of the new city of Juba was underway by 1927. Traders from Rejaf relocated to the new city in 1929, and the Governor's office of Mongalla was moved there in 1930. Greek merchants supplying the British Army played an early and central role in the establishment of Juba in the early 1920s. Their number never exceeded 2,000, but because of their excellent relationship with