Over 300 peace delegates expelled from hotels over unpaid bills

JUBA – At least 300 peace delegates being accommodated in various hotels in South Sudan’s capital Juba have been expelled on Thursday after government failure to pay over $50 million accumulated bills.

Several hotels in Juba are accommodating officials comprising of ministers, members of parliaments, and military generals of various peace parties since 2019.

Speaking to reporters  during a press conference held at South Sudan Hotel in Juba this afternoon, Mel Garang, General Manager of South Sudan Hotel, said they have ceased accommodating peace delegates starting from this afternoon.

“We have given them 28 hours since yesterday and today is the last day for the NTC people in all the hotels to be chase away because they have not paid our money,” Mel told reporters in Juba.

Garang said failure by the NTC to clear their accumulated bills is affecting their business.

“This one is causing us a lot of damage because hotels industries need continuous renovation and the workers or the staff need their salaries. They have not been receiving salaries for more than six or five months. We have suppliers are not getting paid also,” he said.

Kot Maker, Manager of Royal Hotel said they will involve the police to deal with those who may refuse to leave the hotels.

“We have no guns, we  have talked to them politely, we have to convince them to  leave peacefully and if they refused, we have to call the police to evict them and if they refused then they have to pay the expenses on your own and not the government,” Maker said.

The group have issued several letters of warning to the chairperson of the National Transitional Committee (NTC) Tut Gatluak, to remit the outstanding  millions of dollars into accounts but he failed.

Since the signing of the peace agreement, peace delegates have been accommodated —on credit — in hotel apartments despite numerous calls for payments by members of the business community.