The South Sudanese parliament has passed the country’s 2017/18 budget, but had acknowledged that it does not know where much of the funding will come from, Reuters news agency reports.
The parliamentarians voted to boost spending by more than 30 percent, to 46.5 billion South Sudanese pounds ($300 million) from the 2016/2017 budget of 29.6 billion.
Reuters reports the undersecretary for planning at the finance ministry Wani Buyu Dyori to say after the approval of the budget on Monday that funding would be “difficult”.
South Sudan descended into civil war in December 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his then deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup against his government. Machar denied the allegations but then went on to mobilize a rebel force to fight the government.
Thousands of people have been killed since then, with millions others forced to flee their homes.
Earlier this year, the United Nations announced that South Sudan was Africa’s biggest refugee crisis, and third worldwide after Syria and Afghanistan.
A peace deal that was struck in 2015 has continually been violated by the warring factions as fighting persists in the country.
The largest expenditure categories in the $300 million budget are for security, accounting for 27 percent of approved spending, and administration accounting for nearly 29 percent. Administration includes the office of the president, Salva Kiir.
Regional and European leaders have been calling for dialogue to end the crisis, though Riek Machar remains holed up in South Africa where he went to seek medical care.
