Diplomatic staff at South Sudan embassy in US 'unpaid for months'

[Elisabeth Janaina]

Diplomatic staff at South Sudan embassy in US 'unpaid for months'
File photo: Gordon Buay
File photo: Gordon Buay

Diplomatic staff at the South Sudanese embassy in the United State
have gone unpaid for up to four months, a senior diplomat said.

"There is no salary for four months but we have visa money. The
cabinet has instructed us to use the money we get from visas, so we
don’t have any problem of money,” said Ambassador Gordon Buay, a
senior official at the South Sudanese embassy in Washington, DC.

Buay denied reports that he had written a letter to the First Vice
President Taban Deng Gai in which he allegedly complained because of
lack of money at the embassy.

In July, South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs admitted that it
was struggling to pay its diplomats abroad as the country’s dire
economic situation worsens and inflation soars.

South Sudan has been experiencing serious economic challenges, which
are mostly attributed to the ongoing civil war that has disrupted oil
production.