South Sudan Restarts Salary Payments After Months of Arrears
Eastern Africa · Sovereign Finance
Key Facts
—What happened: A ministerial committee ordered the finance ministry on 20 August to start paying civil servants again.
—How far behind: Some public workers say they are owed more than eight months of salary.
—The catch: No date was set for clearing the arrears, and partial payments had already begun in July.
—Why now: Tax collections have risen, and a general election is set for 22 December 2026.
—The wider hole: South Sudan’s embassy in Nairobi closed on 11 August over four months of unpaid rent.
—What comes next: The election commission says the vote needs about US$250 million. It has received US$21 million.
South Sudan salaries are to start flowing again after a ministerial committee ordered the finance ministry on 20 August to begin disbursing pay for civil servants and foreign missions. Some workers say they are owed more than eight months, and no date has been set for clearing the arrears.
Who ordered South Sudan salaries paid, and when
The Ministerial High-Level Committee on Economic Reform met in Juba on Thursday 20 August. It directed the Ministry of Finance and Planning to begin disbursing civil-service salaries and to fund the country’s embassies abroad.
The meeting was chaired by Information Minister Ateny Wek Ateny, the committee’s deputy chairperson. The stated trigger was a reported surge in cash collections by the South Sudan Revenue Authority.
Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, the Minister of Public Service and Human Resource Development and the committee’s acting rapporteur, put it plainly to state broadcaster SSBC. “The embassies will be receiving their salaries and also rental money,” he said.
He added that cash collections were being realised and that public servants would be paid. What the committee did not attach was a date by which the arrears would be cleared.
How deep the hole is
Some public-sector workers report arrears exceeding eight months. That is the figure carried by Juba’s Eye Radio on 21 August, and it is the one we are using.
Members of parliament have made a larger claim on their own behalf, saying they have gone two years without pay. The two accounts have not been reconciled by anyone in government.
The effects are visible at bank counters, where depositors have been told physical cash is unavailable and withdrawals rationed. Road projects have stalled and South Sudan’s embassy in Nairobi closed outright on 11 August over four months of unpaid rent, its second closure for the same reason since November 2025.
South Sudan runs an official exchange rate alongside a much weaker parallel one, so local-currency figures do not translate reliably into dollars. Figures here are given in dollars only where the source gave them in dollars.
The oil that is supposed to pay for it
Oil provides the large majority of government revenue and almost all export earnings, which makes South Sudan one of the world’s most concentrated single-commodity sovereigns. Production has recovered: the World Bank puts output at around 157,000 barrels per day in the first half of the current fiscal year, up from roughly 95,000 the year before.
The Greater Pioneer Operating Company hit 60,158 barrels a day on 29 May 2026, its highest level since 2005. The direction of travel is right.
The problem is the route. Almost all South Sudanese crude leaves through a pipeline crossing Sudan, which is in the middle of a civil war.
That pipeline reopened in 2025 after a shutdown lasting most of a year, which cost Juba an estimated US$7 million a day in lost export revenue. A tripartite security arrangement agreed in December 2025 covers protection of the infrastructure, and it involves both of Sudan’s warring parties.
A central bank that keeps changing hands
Monetary management has been unstable in a way that compounds everything else. Dr Addis Ababa Othow has returned as governor of the Bank of South Sudan, having previously held the post between June and November 2025.
He replaced Johny Ohisa Damian, dismissed by decree on the day of the reappointment. President Salva Kiir has publicly tasked him with reforms to restore best practices and strengthen governance at the central bank.
Churn at that level is not a detail for anyone holding South Sudanese counterparty risk. A central bank that changes hands repeatedly cannot easily build the record a lender would want to read.
Kiir has defended the turnover as a search for someone who can fix the economy.
Why the December date changes the arithmetic
The National Elections Commission has set the general election for 22 December 2026. It would be the first since independence in 2011, and it has been postponed repeatedly, in 2018, 2021, 2023 and 2024.
On 21 August Kiir directed the commission to speed up preparations, after meeting its chairperson, Professor Abednego Akok Kachuol. Voter registration is expected to begin soon, and the commission has run assessment missions across the ten states and three administrative areas.
Unpaid salaries and the election have become linked in Juba’s politics. Whether a state that cannot pay its own workers can fund a credible vote has begun to surface in parliamentary debate.
The Political Parties Council and the National Constitutional Review Commission have both warned peace monitors that funding shortages and insecurity threaten the December date. South Sudan is also a significant destination market on the northern corridor, so Ugandan and Kenyan exporters feel a Juba cash crisis directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long have public workers gone unpaid?
Some public-sector workers report arrears exceeding eight months, according to Eye Radio on 21 August 2026. Members of parliament have separately claimed two years without pay.
What has the government done about it?
The Ministerial High-Level Committee on Economic Reform met on 20 August 2026 and directed the Ministry of Finance and Planning to begin disbursing salaries and funding for foreign missions. No completion date was given.
When is the South Sudan election?
The National Elections Commission has set the general election for 22 December 2026. It would be the first since independence and has already been postponed five times.
Why is the state short of cash?
Oil provides the large majority of government revenue and is exported almost entirely through Sudan, where a civil war has repeatedly disrupted the pipeline. A shutdown that ended in 2025 cost Juba roughly US$100 million a month.
Who runs South Sudan’s central bank?
Dr Addis Ababa Othow, who has returned to the post after a first term from June to November 2025, replacing Johny Ohisa Damian.
Connected Coverage
South Sudan’s fortunes track the war next door, covered in our pillar Africa: The New Scramble. See also Sudan’s move to reopen the Kenyan tea trade, the return of piracy off Somalia, and more from our Eastern Africa hub.
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