Africa

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July 25, 2018 (KAMPALA/JUBA) – A South Sudanese human rights entity has condemned government's decision to give the country's lawmakers about $40,000 as car bonuses, urging the legislators to voluntarily return the money to the state treasury.

South Sudanese MPs stand during a parliamentary session in Juba on August 31, 2011 (AFP)

The bonuses were awarded to the lawmakers, barely a month after the lawmakers extended President Salva Kiir's mandate until 2021.

The executive director for the Center Peace and Justice's (CPJ), Tito Anthony said it a wrong decision at a wrong time, where citizens need the basic service such as hospitals, schools, shelter and food.

“I question the professionality of our MPs and it is clear they are just a rubber stamp of the executive and can encourage corruption if they can be rewarded like what has now been done,” Tito said Thursday.

He said the MPs should have questioned the executive about the source of the money they were each given, considering that the country's civil servant have gone unpaid for more than five months.

“It now clear that both the executive and legislature work only for their own interest, but not [for] the people of South Sudan as they claimed,” further explained Tito.

He added, “The money paid to MPs is a lot and it could have instead been used to rescue the suffering population, many of who have died of treatable diseases such Malaria and Typhoid because of lack of good hospitals and medicine, or they could use it to build schools or purchase relief and distribute to ordinary citizens whose humanitarian situations deteriorate on a daily basis due to inflation”.

Meanwhile CPJ has vowed to take legal action against the lawmakers should they fail to properly account for the state money.

South Sudan lawmakers are among the lowest paid in the region.

(ST)

July 25, 2018 (JUBA) - South Sudanese government on Wednesday condemned the attack on humanitarian facilities in Maban county in Northern Upper Nile state as President Kiir directed to investigate the incident.

Angered youth from Maban attacked and burned the offices and residences of aid workers in Bunj area, of Maban on Monday accusing the international organisation of recruiting people from outside Maban and refusing their demand for work.

The attack was discussed in a meeting of the National Security Council chaired by President Salva Kiir. The meeting received reports from the security service, army and the police and also a report from the governor of Northern Upper Nile State.

After the meeting, Interior Minister Michael Chiengjiek said the meeting condemned the attack on the humanitarian facilities.

Chiengjiek further said that the President of the Republic sent a high-level security committee to Maban to investigate into the attack.

In a separate statement, the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) issued a statement condemning the attack on humanitarian workers and the destruction of facilities and equipment at the Maban.

"Attacks on aid workers who diligently offer their services to alleviate the suffering of people of South Sudan, are deeply regrettable and indeed a violation of the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities, Protection of Civilians and Humanitarian Access signed in December 2017," said JMEC.

The peace monitoring body called on the South Sudanese authorities to carry out an independent investigation into the attack and to hold those responsible to account.

Maban which is not far from the Sudanese border hosts refugees from the Blue Nile state who are displaced by the armed conflict between the Sudanese government and the rebel SPLM-N.

(ST)