South Sudanese students who refused to return to Juba after participating in the regional games in Uganda say they have finally been given their incentives after two weeks of back and forth argument with the Ministry of Education.

The students who took part in the Federation of East African Secondary School Sport Association Games in Gulu, Uganda between the 22th and 27th of August say they have received their dues as demanded.

About 130 students who participated in the regional secondary school games in Gulu last month refused to return home until they are paid their incentives of $200 each.

Students who participated in the regional games in Uganda say they have finally received their long awaited incentives.

They had participated in the Federation of East African Secondary School Sport Association Games in Gulu, Uganda between the 22th and 27th of August.

130 students had refused to come back to Juba due to the delay by the Ministry of Education to pay their incentive and were sheltering at a church in the border town of Nimule.

Each student was supposed to receive 200 dollars each, but the Ministry of General Education said the Central Bank had not provided them with dollars due to shortage of the foreign currency.

The Ministry wanted to pay the students off using the South Sudanese pounds, a move that was strongly rejected by all the students.

They said the arrangement was for each team to also receive an incentive of 100 USD per day.

There were five teams that participated in the Hand ball, football, basketball, volley ball and athletics for both boys and girls, totaling to 10 teams –all together.

The games ended on Saturday 26^th of August.

From that time until today, the students vehemently refuse any effort to return them to Juba via chartered flights, accept if they receive the incentive as promised from when they departed Juba.

The deadlock between the ministry and the students reached the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, prompting the Committee for Education, Research, Science and Technology to respond.

The chairperson of the committee, Honorable Ahmed Mohamed Musa says they intervened by asking the government to clear the amount demanded by the students.

He said they also convince the students to be lenient in their plea.

By Wednesday afternoon, 14 students out of over 130 arrived in Juba.

Those who spoke to Eye Radio confirmed that they have been given their money by the Ministry of Education.

“We have received our money am from handball girls team those who received their money there is some people who left to Juba they are in plane right now so we will be the second Bach to departure for Juba,” said one of the female student.

“By the grace of God, we managed to receive to the amount that we wanted to be given to us that was 200 US dollars. They gave us using the bank rate and it amounted to 23000SSP. And each team also received 100 USD per day for 7 days which amounted to 81,900 SSP. There are some teams like handball and basketball they have received their money and they have boarded a plane,” said another student.