US Capital Building, Washington DC Coutesy - of -gbmnews.com

The US Embassy in South Sudan has denied a media report that the United States has taken a decision to withhold its military aid in the country, saying it doesn’t offer this sort of aid anyway.

The Sudan Tribune reported last week that the US government will withdraw its support for South Sudan following the US Special Envoy to South Sudan, Donald Booth “declaring in a testimony to the House of Representatives panel that ‘business as usual’ must cease in the case of strife-torn South Sudan.”

Sudan Tribune quoted the US Special Envoy as saying that US assistance to South Sudan will now be reprogrammed to support the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, in operating the Monitoring and Verification Mechanism.

The media’s website also says Ambassador Booth criticized the performance of South Sudan government, pointing out those authorities in Juba “attempted to contain inter-communal violence without fully committing to the hard work of addressing its causes.”

However, the Communications Officer at the US Embassy in South Sudan, Ajani Husbands told Eye Radio from Nairobi Kenya, that the US government has not been giving the government of South Sudan any military Aid, apart from training its forces.

“… a lot of our normal projects are stalled. That’s more to a fact of us being at reduced staff and reduced capacity. He also stated that we are supporting IGAD and their regional Verification Mission, which of course deals with monitoring the cessation of hostilities agreement, and also deals with the peace talks in Addis. So those are the two things that the special envoy is talking about. It is not as Sudan Tribune was putting it, that we have withdrawn military aid. This gives the notion that we have been funding South Sudan; like we have been providing military assistance which we have not”, he said.

On Wednesday, the Congress convened to hear testimony from experts and discuss U.S. Policy towards Sudan and South Sudan.