South Sudan – 24 June 2016

UN to send peacekeepers home over South Sudan inaction

The United Nations has said that it will send peacekeepers home over a “lack of responsiveness” during a bloody attack on a UN-run camp in South Sudan in February.

UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous acknowledged on Wednesday that an investigation had found “inadequacies” in peacekeepers’ response when gunmen in military uniforms stormed the camp in the northeastern town of Malakal on February 17 and 18, firing on civilians and setting shelters ablaze.

The attack on the camp, where about 48,000 people were sheltering, left at least 40 dead and 123 wounded.

Aljazeera

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South Sudan’s foreign currency reserves can only last for a month, says Central Bank official

South Sudan has foreign currency reserves likely to last for only a month, a Central Bank official said amid warnings of a possible economy collapse.

“The [foreign] reserves we have may cover only imports of only five weeks [from now],” John Dor Majok, the deputy Central Bank governor told Radio Miraya Thursday.

“After that [five weeks], there will not be any goods in the market,” he added, but said the goods could be available in the country, yet the prices could be extremely high.

This is the first time Central Bank has public declared the depth of the economic crisis triggered by war in 2013 that led to reduction in daily oil output, coupled with decline in global oil prices. South Sudan relies on oil for 98% of government revenues.

Sudan Tribune