South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to stop work on Monday because it had no power due to lack of fuel to run its generator, several officials said.
“We could not work today because we had no power,” one diplomat said. “The generator was down because of lack of fuel. This was the information we were given when we asked the office of the undersecretary and the director general for administration and finance.”
Another diplomat said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is supposed to receive fuel from the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining, which is the only institution permitted to supply fuel to government agencies.
That diplomat added there wasn’t enough dollars to import fuel.
Meetings with foreign diplomats had to be rescheduled because without power to run the air conditioning it was too hot to work, according to the first diplomat. Regular emails to South Sudan’s missions in foreign countries regarding policy and operational matters also could not be sent.
“All these communications have been affected today because of the lack of fuel,” a third diplomat said. “It’s usually a big workload. It means working extra hours when there is a fuel and work resumes normally.”
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Lights go out on South Sudan parliament sitting (20 May)