The government has refuted the statement that the country had been dismissed from the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD)
According to the statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on stated that South Sudan was still a “full member” of IGAD but only barred from its voting rights due to annual membership fees arrears.
“Indeed, the Republic of South Sudan has been barred from exercising its voting rights and other benefits at IGAD owing to non-payment of its annual membership contributions,” the statement read in part.
“This, however, doesn’t mean suspension of membership from IGAD and the Ministry would, therefore, like to reassure the public that our country remains a full member of IGAD.”
Suspension revealed
On Friday, the Council of Ministers meeting revealed that the country had been suspended over unpaid membership fees.
Michael Makuei Lueth Minister of Information who doubles as Government Spokesperson told the reporters, “It is worth mentioning that we have been suspended from IGAD simply because we have not paid our dues and there are so many vacancies which we are supposed to occupy.”
“About 14 of them which are supposed to be our positions, we are unable to occupy them simply because we have not paid our dues for long,” Makuei said.
He said the Foreign Affairs and Finance Ministers had been directed by the cabinet to settle debts so that the government of South Sudan and its citizens could benefit from the regional jobs.
“The cabinet instead of looking at only one item out of the overall, there was a resolution passed about three weeks ago directing that the arrears of foreign affairs and all the arrears of our dues in the organizations should be paid by finance[ministry],” Makuei stated.
Budget approved
The council of ministers in October, approved nearly $100 million for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to settle the debts in the regional institutions, embassies and foreign missions.
“We are also losing membership in some of the organizations be regional or international simply because we have not been paying our fees,” Makuei added.
In 2020, South Sudan was barred from membership in the African Union due to its failure to pay the annual membership fees accrued for three years, and consequently, the South Sudanese participants were rid of their participation in the African Union summit.
In January 2021, South Sudan was one of the countries mentioned by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to not have paid their $22,804 contributions since 2019.
Zimbabwe, Somalia, Iran, Libya were among the five other countries that did not pay their contributions.
In July this year, South Sudan and Burundi were voted out of the East African Community. The president before the summit of the heads of the partner states pledged that the fees would be cleared.
East partner state in the East African Community is deemed to pay $8 million annually. Burundi had not paid four years contribution that amounts to $30m while South Sudan was demanded $10 million.
A well-placed source who represents South Sudan in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) said the government would pay nearly $30 million to the regional bloc. The arrears accumulated since it joined the bloc in 2016.