IGAD suspends South Sudan over debts

The Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has suspended South Sudan over unpaid membership dues.

This was revealed by Mayiik Ayii, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation during the regular Council of Ministers meeting held every Friday.

He told the cabinet that the IGAD needed South Sudan to clear all the arrears it owes the bloc to benefit from the slots allocated to the country.

Addressing the media after the cabinet meeting, Michael Makuei Lueth, the Minister of Information and official Government Spokesperson said the cabinet meeting resolved that the country’s arrears with the regional bloc IGAD must be cleared.

He said if the country did not clear the arrears it would not get the slots in the bloc.

However, Makuei did not disclose how much the country owes the IGAD.

“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 told reporters in Juba.

He said the cabinet had directed the Foreign Affairs and Finance Ministers to find a path to pay the outstanding dues.

“So that the South Sudanese government and people can benefit from these positions.”

 “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 said.

In October, the Council of Ministers approved a payment of nearly $100 million to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cover all outstanding debts that had been accruing for a long time.

“We are also losing membership in some of the organizations be regional or international simply because we have not been paying our fees,” Makuei explained.

Also, in June 2020, South Sudan was sanctioned by the African Union in a letter sent to the country’s ministry of foreign affairs after it failed to pay annual membership fees for the previous three years. South Sudanese participants were also barred from attending the Union’s summit.

Earlier this year, the United Nations listed South Sudan among ten countries that have not paid their annual contributions for two years.

According to a letter by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on January 13 to the President of the UN General Assembly, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Iran, Libya, and five other countries did not pay their contributions since 2019.

In the letter, South Sudan owes the body $22,804.

The East African Community’s Assembly in July voted to expel South Sudan and serial defaulter, Burundi. A final decision on the issue was to reach during the leaders of the member nations meeting but the president pledged to clear the arrears.

EAC members are supposed to pay $8m a year in dues. Burundi has not paid for four years – which comes up to over $30m, while South Sudan owes $10 million.

According to a member of parliament representing South Sudan to the EALA, the government owes the East African communal block about $30 million in membership fees since the country joined the bloc in 2016.

The recent suspension of South Sudan by the IGAD is the second time the country is facing such a headache after the African Union, in June blocked South Sudanese diplomats from engaging in its activities.