The African Union or AU has barred South Sudan from attending its meetings due to accumulated annual arrears.
A letter written by South Sudan Mission in Ethiopia said the country was sanctioned after it failed to pay financial contributions amounting to over nine million US Dollars to the AU Budget and Peace fund.
The mission described it as dramatic and embarrassing when the chairperson stopped the meeting to inform the country’s diplomats that their participation was illegal.
The letter indicated that South Sudan has accumulated three consecutive years without paying its annual arrears.
Hakim Edward, deputy Foreign Affairs Spokesperson on Friday confirmed the suspension of South Sudan from the pan African body.
He said the sanctions do not deprive South Sudan of its membership, but it only suspends the country from participating in AU meetings.
‘We would like to confirm to the public that South Sudan is one of the countries that have been sanctioned by the AU due to lack of yearly financial contributions’, Edward said.
‘The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to assure the public that it is coordinating with the Ministry of Finance to resolve the matter not only with the AU, but with other regional bodies’, he said.
South Sudan became the 54th member of the African Union on 27 July 2011.