The Egyptian government has made two batches of donations as part of its contributions to help the South Sudanese government fight SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 according to Mohamed Kedah, Egyptian Ambassador to South Sudan.
“We have received aid from Egypt to combat the coronavirus in South Sudan. It is a variety of aid, 11 tons of medicines in addition to 15 tons of medical supplies, which include medical jackets for medical personnel,” Kedah told the press Wednesday.
The donations, which also consist of food items came in time workers at the government health institutions downed tools citing negligence over their financial wellbeing by the employer.
A section of health workers told The City Review that they have been rendering critical services without salaries for months, including from the onset of the novel coronavirus.
The City Review also established that as of Wednesday last week, the Public Health Emergency Operation Center was closed in a desperate attempt to draw government attention by the health employees.
The Rapid Respond Team, a group tasked with delivering emergency services has also halted operation according to sources familiar with the development as cases of coronavirus continue to soar at a worrying proportion.
While they have currently resumed duties, a source who spoke anonymously said the workers have given the government a five-day ultimatum to pay their salaries, and failure to act accordingly will bring their services to a halt again.
This came after the Minister for health, pleaded with the staff to resume work, promising to settle their grievances in a quickest time possible
With several senior government officials infected and in quarantine, social and political commentators in the country question the accountability of the money donated, which could have been used to pay, not just health workers, but also other conventional government employees.
“With all the funding in their millions in either USD or Euros, our only Covid-19 testing center is closed over poor working conditions and payments. Where is this huge funding going?” Wani Michael, political policy analyst questioned.
On 9th April, the World Bank gave South Sudan $7.6 million in response to the government request and to help the country better manage the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen national systems of public health preparedness.
“The COVID-19 outbreak is anticipated to overburden South Sudan’s weak public health preparedness and responses systems and may have a socio-economic impact on South Sudan in terms of increasing food insecurity and deepening poverty and vulnerabilities,” Husam Abudagga, the World Bank Country Manager for South Sudan said at the time.
Earlier that month, the United States government made a donation worth $8 million, that handout came on 2nd April when the country had no cases of coronavirus. As the virus intensified, the U.S. made an additional donation of $2million as of May 20th 2020.
As part of their regional contributions to fight coronavirus, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) gave the government of South Sudan $100,000 within the same month, bringing the total summation of $17.7 million (SSP 46.6million).
When contacted for comment, Spokesman at the Ministry of Health Dr. Thuou Loi declined to comment saying he was out of office.