Juba - South Sudanese lawmakers stormed
out of a budget presentation for the 2019/20 financial year by
the finance minister on Thursday, with one citing frustrations
over non-payment of salaries of civil servants and soldiers.
The disruption highlights South Sudan's fragile government
months after the latest peace deal was signed to end a civil
war, often fought along ethnic lines and that has crippled oil
production, forced millions to flee and killed 400,000 people.
"Our army is cutting down trees to make a living, our
foreign missions ... it is now almost one year we are unable to
pay them. Our teachers are not being paid. What are we doing? We
are now presenting a new budget while our salaries are not being
paid," one lawmaker shouted.
Parliament Speaker Anthony Lino adjourned the parliament
sitting.
"The concerns that you have raised, I have heard them but I
don't like the way you make them. We are going to adjourn and
call the house at a time we are going to announce," he said.
Fighting broke out between troops loyal to President Salva
Kiir and his former deputy turned rival Riek Machar in late
2013, less than three years after South Sudan declared
independence from Sudan amid celebrations and promises of
support from major world powers.
A peace agreement signed last September, the latest in a
series of others reached since 2013, is largely holding.
In May, South Sudan's ruling and opposition parties agreed
to give themselves six more months to form a unity government as
part of the peace deal.