Diplomatic staff at the South Sudanese embassy in the United State have gone unpaid for up to four months, a senior diplomat said.

"There is no salary for four months but we have visa money. The cabinet has instructed us to use the money we get from visas, so we don’t have any problem of money,” said Ambassador Gordon Buay, a senior official at the South Sudanese embassy in Washington, DC.

Buay denied reports that he had written a letter to the First Vice President Taban Deng Gai in which he allegedly complained because of lack of money at the embassy.

In July, South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs admitted that it was struggling to pay its diplomats abroad as the country’s dire economic situation worsens and inflation soars.

South Sudan has been experiencing serious economic challenges, which are mostly attributed to the ongoing civil war that has disrupted oil production.