A member of the ‘G7’ group of SPLM leaders formerly detained in Juba says that the President of South Sudan is squandering money on paying Ugandan troops to do his fighting.

He alleges that the South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has been paying the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) since fighting erupted in mid-December last year.

In an interview with the Khartoum-based Al Jarida newspaper, the former Cabinet Affairs Minister Deng Alor Kuol said the president has been draining public money on the Ugandan forces.

South Sudanese Defence Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk has acknowledged that the government is paying for the cost of Ugandan operations in South Sudan, but he did not say that the soldiers themselves are paid by South Sudan.  

“It is the government of South Sudan footing the bill of the operation which started officially on December 23, last year when a fierce fighting broke out in Juba and entered to other towns,” the minister said.

"We are funding all the activities of UPDF [Uganda Peoples Defense Forces] and SPLA [Sudan Peoples Liberation Army] in our territory," he further revealed.

The Status of Forces Agreement between Uganda and South Sudan does not mention finances, except to say that the Ugandan government will pay the costs for medical treatment of Ugandan soldiers. 

Alor, meanwhile, warned the regional IGAD forces who planned to deploy in South Sudan against adopting a policy similar to the Ugandans, who fought actively alongside the South Sudanese army.

The former detainee also called for the cancellation of a special tribunal set up for the trial of the four SPLM detainees among them the SPLM secretary general Pagan Amum, saying they should take part in the ongoing peace talks.

The veteran politician expressed pessimism about a possible breakthrough in the second round of negotiations between the two warring parties in Addis Ababa.