Afrikas nyeste nation vil indstille alle udviklingstiltag i 30 måneder efter månedlang strid med Sudan om indtægterne fra den dyrebare olie – kassen er tilsyneladende ved at være tom.
South Sudanese Vice-President Riek Machar has told the BBC that the loss of oil revenues will mean development would have to be put on hold for several years, but basic services would not suffer.
“For a period of 30 months we will definitely freeze our activities on development, but we will provide basic services: Health; education; water and even some infrastructure projects will go on,” he said, according to BBC online Monday.
South Sudan has halved spending on everything but salaries to compensate for the loss of revenue following an oil shutdown due to a row with Sudan.
Oil makes up 98 per cent of its budget, after it split from the north last year. There will be no job losses and government wages will still be paid, the finance ministry stressed.
President Salva Kiir said his nation would rather struggle for a bit than continue to hand over its oil revenues to the old enemies in Khartoum.
The pipelines run from South Sudan through its northern neighbour, with which it fought a bitter civil war for decades, leading to the deaths of some 1,5 million people.
But the two countries have never reached an agreement over how much the south must pay.
In January, South Sudan shut down its entire oil production of 350.000 barrels a day after Sudan started seizing southern oil to compensate for what it called unpaid transit fees.
Se også
http://www.u-landsnyt.dk/nyhed/20-02-12/sydsudan-fra-slemt-til-v-rre
