Juba: The Sudan War Caused Delays in Employees’ Salaries

Sudan Events – Agencies

South Sudan’s Minister of Finance, Awu Daniel Chuang, said that the war in Sudan led to a delay in the payment of salaries to government employees in his country.
Chuang explained that the crisis of delayed salaries in the south as a result of the country’s lack of revenues from crude oil sales has diminished because the war in Sudan led to the disruption of a pipeline linking to the port of Port Sudan to export southern oil.
South Sudan was pumping about 150,000 barrels per day of crude oil for export through Sudan and paying it transit fees according to a formula that was agreed upon after the secession of South Sudan in 2011, along with most of the oil production that Sudan had before the separation.
The main pipeline from South Sudan has witnessed work stoppages since last month due to problems related to the war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces.
South Sudan’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Awu Chuang, acknowledged in a press conference that government employees have not received their salaries for six months, for reasons including a decline in oil revenues.
“The situation has worsened because of what is happening in Sudan,” he said. As you all know, South Sudan depends on oil and that 90 percent or more of it does not flow in some fields that are extremely important to South Sudan.”
Southern parliamentarian Boutros Magaya Ngbanagano, who is responsible for a parliamentary subcommittee on oil affairs, stated in a letter to President Salva Kiir that the stoppage, if it continues, could lead to losses of not less than $100 million per month.
South Sudan, which descended into civil war from 2013 to 2018, is already struggling to return production to pre-war levels of between 350,000 and 400,000 barrels per day.