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Five South Sudan Soldiers Die In Gun Fight At Barracks

Five South Sudan Soldiers Die In Gun Fight At Barracks

A gun fight erupted in a SPLA barrack in Juba on Wednesday reminiscent of the December 15 breakout that ushered a civil war between government forces and a rebel group of the army. This time however, the military was quick to clarify that the gunfight that claimed lives of at least five members of the regiment at  the Giada barracks was due to a delay in salary payments.

A new procedure of distributing salaries that requires all civil servants to pick pay in person to avoid cases of ghost employees seems to have gone sour in the military ranks. South Sudan, the newest country on the continent has been struggling to pay it employees after its oil pipe lines through Sudan were shut down over a payment dispute.

The country’s budget is more than 70 percent financed by it oil revenue, while the reset is from aid.

“This is purely an issue of salaries. It is not political and will not spread… Soldiers have not been paid since January, why I don’t know, and went to the commander seeking answers,” Tiger Division Malaak Ayuen, an SPLA spokeman, told journalists.