{"id":43494,"date":"2025-07-28T20:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T20:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/43494\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T20:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T20:53:09","slug":"cash-shortage-sparks-fury-in-south-sudan-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/43494\/","title":{"rendered":"Cash shortage sparks fury in South Sudan parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Sudanese lawmakers are demanding urgent explanations from the country\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotamazuj.org\/en\/news\/article\/central-bank-weighs-more-money-printing-mps-say\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">central bank <\/a>and finance ministry over a worsening liquidity crisis that has left government employees, including legislators, unable to access their salaries for weeks.<\/p>\n<p>During a sitting in the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) on Monday, lawmakers from across the political spectrum sounded the alarm over severe cash shortages crippling commercial banks and the Central Bank of South Sudan.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Ruot Koryom, a member of parliament representing Nyirol County, revealed that salaries deposited in banks have been inaccessible for nearly a month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll South Sudanese working in government institutions, including the organized forces, cannot withdraw their money,\u201d Ruot said, calling for Finance Minister Dr. Marial Dongrin Ater and central bank officials to be summoned before parliament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need answers. Many of us are sick and cannot even afford treatment. Who is fooling us\u2014the central bank or the finance ministry?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His concerns were echoed by Anei John Akok, an MP representing Northern Bahr el Ghazal, who urged the assembly to prioritize discussions on the economic crisis over less pressing matters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSouth Sudan is in a critical situation. Why aren\u2019t we discussing inflation, unpaid civil servant salaries, or skyrocketing fuel prices?\u201d Akok said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFifteen of our colleagues did not attend today\u2019s sitting because their cars had no fuel,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The liquidity crunch has exposed deeper vulnerabilities in South Sudan\u2019s economy, which remains heavily reliant on oil revenues and has made little progress in diversification.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Finance Minister Ater publicly acknowledged <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotamazuj.org\/en\/news\/article\/finance-minister-says-cash-shortage-a-challenging-situation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the cash shortages<\/a> but offered no long-term solutions.<\/p>\n<p>John Agany, the parliament\u2019s former information committee chair, confirmed that while salaries have been processed on paper, banks lack the physical currency to dispense funds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe central bank is not providing liquidity,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a dire situation affecting every citizen\u2014including us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jemma Nunu Kumba, the assembly\u2019s speaker, acknowledged the severity of the crisis but deferred action, instructing lawmakers to formally submit a motion for debate.<\/p>\n<p>Criticism of Legislative Priorities<\/p>\n<p>The parliament\u2019s failure to immediately address the crisis has drawn sharp criticism.<\/p>\n<p>Ter Manyang, executive director of the Center for Peace and Advocacy, accused lawmakers of neglecting urgent domestic issues in favor of foreign policy debates, such as the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA parliament that ignores its own economic collapse and security crises is dangerously out of touch,\u201d Manyang said. \u201cThe people are suffering, and their leaders must be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Sudanese lawmakers are demanding urgent explanations from the country\u2019s central bank and finance ministry over a worsening&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-43494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}