South Sudan’s former deputy finance minister Mou Ambrose Riiny Thiik has confessed that the country has run out of cash.

Mou said this on Monday barely four days after his removal by President Salva Kiir. He was replaced by Athian Diing Athian as the new deputy finance minister.

He said South Sudan government cannot pay its civil servants, citing the country’s troubled economy. “I think I was removed not because I said the country has run out of cash. The issue of money is not something new because everyone knows because we don’t have salaries for several months,” he told Radio Tamazuj.

“Employees of the ministry of foreign affairs have gone unpaid for nearly 10 months now, so it is a reality and anyone knows the problem, so it is not me who said it,” he added.

The former deputy minister blamed the problem to the ongoing civil war and the drop in oil prices at the global market, besides the issue of debts.

“When I came to the ministry I found that we had debts, and we are paying back the debts owed to companies. We are also paying money to Sudan based on the transitional financial arrangement deal, “he said.

South Sudan, where oil revenues make up nearly 98 percent of the budget, has been reeling under an economic crisis due to the ongoing civil war.