Donors to Juba: Revoke 28 states or be starved of cash
What you need to know:
A group of main donor countries that support South Sudan, the Troika, has warned President Salva Kiir's government to revoke the controversial new 28 states or be starved of funds.
A group of main donor countries that support South Sudan, the Troika, has warned President Salva Kiir's government to revoke the controversial new 28 states or be starved of funds.
The Troika include the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Denmark and Sweden.
A Troika letter addressed to Juba last week, which was leaked to the media, also advised President Kiir to sack two top officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank.
The motive for the demand for the termination of the two officials remains unclear.
The Troika said they would not be in a position to continue disbursing funds to Juba if their demands were not met.
But the presidential press secretary, Mr Ateny Wek Ateny, appealed to the Troika to continue supporting the economic recovery of the young nation.
Mr Ateny insisted that reforms in the two financial institutions were strictly internal matters and so was the issue of the 28 states.
“My appeal to the Troika is to stop those conditions and support South Sudan unconditionally,” Mr Ateny is quoted by the local Eye Radio in Juba.
An independent economic analyst, Dr James Garang Alith, said the 28 states were created for political reasons but were unsustainable economically.
“Politically, the 28 states impressed some communities and they are happy to have them, but economically, the 28 states are not sustainable,” he said.
Dr Alith acknowledged the suffering of South Sudanese people from the economic crisis, pointing out that the 28 states placed President Kiir between a rock and a hard place.
