South Sudan’s government has defended its decision to give each parliamentarian the sum of $40,000 (UShs147m), which it says is a loan to buy cars “because they [currently] use motorbikes”.
Reports from Juba say the MPs were handed the money in cash.
The country’s economy has been wrecked by a five-year civil war, and earlier this month a UN report warned that atrocities committed in the conflict may amount to war crimes. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the violent conflict and and which the UN says may amount to war crimes.
“Mobility is part of the rights of the parliamentarian,” presidential spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny told BBC Newsday. He said the money had been set aside as part of this year’s national budget
