UN says South Sudan officials are stalling humanitarian aid

South Sudan officials are holding up United Nations (UN) fuel tankers in a tax dispute, stalling delivery of millions of dollars in aid during a humanitarian crisis, says the UN mission there.

The trucks were held up at depots and the Ugandan border on Wednesday despite assurances from the minister of humanitarian affairs a day earlier that a new tax on trucks carrying fuel and other supplies did not apply to UN humanitarian operations, said a spokesperson for the mission.

Humanitarian affairs minister Albino Akok Atak and information minister Michael Makuei were not immediately available for comment.

The trade ministry order this week, announcing the tax, said the $300 charge on each goods truck entering and leaving the country was intended to help the government maximise revenue collection by addressing under-valuations and fraud. South Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives due to civil war from 2013 to 2018, is suffering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises as a result of conflict, natural disasters and poverty.

Last month, the UN estimated that about 7.1-million of its 12.4million people would experience crisis-level hunger in the April-July lean season. “The trucks are still held up. The mission is continuing to engage intensively at the highest levels to resolve the situation,” said Priyanka Chowdhury, acting spokesperson for the mission. .

Humanitarian airdrops were suspended, affecting 60,000 people in need. The mission said on Tuesday that it had to review peacekeeping patrols and reduce support to peace and the electoral processes.

Traders and other groups protested against the measure. This week, diplomats called its imposition on UN and other aid operations “illicit and unacceptable”. The UN mission has about 20,000 peacekeepers protecting about 180,000 displaced people in the country.