Workers seek side gigs as oil pipeline rupture deepens South Sudan crisis

The recent rupture of a crucial oil pipeline has sent fresh pain through the economy of South Sudan, where even the security forces haven't been paid in nine months. Some soldiers and civil servants are turning to side hustles or abandoning their jobs.

South Sudan's economy largely depends on the oil it exports via neighboring Sudan. But war in Sudan has created widespread chaos, and the pipeline in an area of fighting ruptured in February. The drop in oil revenues has compounded South Sudan's long problem of official mismanagement.

Now the already fragile country is seeing protests in the capital over lack of pay, with more expected. And its people are under pressure to make up the gap in salary payments in unexpected ways.

In the capital, Juba, a school deputy head teacher, Maburuk Kuyu Surur, said he has been teaching for 36 years and has never seen a salary delay like this one. That dates back well into the years before South Sudan and Sudan split into two countries in 2011.

Surur said he and other teachers have been collecting small amounts of money from students' families to help support themselves, even though schooling is free.

"We are suffering," the 60-year-old said.

The government of President Salva Kiir, who has led South Sudan since its split, has struggled in the economic crisis. The finance ministry has had six ministers since 2020, with the latest fired in July.

In recent weeks, government ministries and other offices in Juba remained mostly empty during working hours. Remaining employees said colleagues had left after getting tired of working without pay since October.

One government worker said her salary — when it came — was the equivalent of $8 a month. She has since found work at a restaurant and makes about $20. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

"Prices keep rising every day," she said. A 50-kilogramme bag of maize flour now costs up to five times the price a year ago.

Inflation in South Sudan is 35 percent from a year ago, according to the World Bank. Meanwhile, the local currency has plunged against the US dollar on the black market and in the official rate.

Even as a third of South Sudan's oil still flows for export via another pipeline, the country's president has openly expressed frustration with mismanagement as the government must rely more on non-oil revenue like taxes in imported goods.

Those revenues should be enough to cover salaries but the money isn't reaching government accounts, Kiir said in July.

"We have nine solid months people have not received their salaries, and we have money," he asserted after swearing in the latest finance minister.

Kiir instructed the minister to establish a single account for all revenues and crack down on corrupt practices in revenue collection.

The government hadn't placed much emphasis on this before when more oil was flowing, said Boboya James, chief executive officer with the Juba-based Institute of Social Policy and Research.

He said the shrinking public finances are due to poor policies and corruption that have robbed the young nation of development funds.

Some external support continues. The African Development Bank and South Sudan's government recently signed a $46.2 million agreement to support agricultural production through December 2030.

But international frustration from some partners who once cheered South Sudan's split has grown. Intercommunal violence continues even after the end of civil war years ago. The elections that had been scheduled for last year have been postponed to December, but the United Nations says the needed work to carry them out is incomplete.

Displacement and poverty in the landlocked country are widespread. The UN has said 75 percent of the population relies on humanitarian aid.

South Sudan hopes to diversify its revenue with tourism and fruit and vegetable farming, among other ideas.

But its civil servants and security forces are showing signs of exhaustion.

In May, the foreign ministry said diplomats and staff in South Sudan's foreign missions had not received their salaries since 2019. Many have gotten by with help from friends and loved ones.

But in June, a senior South Sudanese diplomat at the embassy in Rome was seen crying in a video posted online after he was evicted from his apartment for failing to pay rent.

At home, hundreds of university lecturers and others have protested in Juba over lack of pay. Security forces didn't intervene.

Some of those security forces are quietly moving on, seeking other ways to make a living.

"I have decided to desert my government job and become a charcoal broker," Akol Deng, a member of the armed forces, said. He has been supplying charcoal to local restaurants and residential areas instead.