War-torn South Sudan law passed limiting foreign aid workers

Juba (AFP) - Aid dependent and war-torn South Sudan has passed a law forcing aid agencies to ensure no more than a fifth of their staff are foreigners, the president's spokesman said Wednesday.

After 17-months of war, over half of the country's 12 million people are in need of aid, with 2.5 million people facing severe food insecurity, according to the UN.

The Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Bill was passed by parliament but must still be signed by President Salva Kiir.

"The NGO bill was passed and it is with the committee, and after that it will come to the president," Ateny Wek Ateny, spokesman in the president's office, told AFP Wednesday.

"The NGO bill is to regulate the NGOs, international and local."

South Sudan suffers from a major shortage of skilled workers, with only around a quarter of the population being able to read and write.

Last September, a government statement ordered all foreign workers, including aid agency staff, to be replaced by South Sudanese citizens. The government reversed the policy announcement a day later.

South Sudan's civil war began in December 2013 and has been characterised by ethnically-driven massacres, rape and attacks on civilians and medical facilities.

The violence, which has escalated into an ethnic conflict involving multiple armed groups, has killed tens of thousands of people in the world's youngest nation, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

The past month has seen one of the heaviest government offensives in the war, with gunmen raping girls, torching towns and looting aid supplies.

Over 300,000 civilians have been left without "life-saving aid" in the northern battleground state of Unity, after the UN and aid agencies pulled out due to a surge in fighting, with over 100,000 forced to flee their homes.

African Union Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma warned late Tuesday the nation was facing a "catastrophic humanitarian situation" with the "loss of countless human lives and untold suffering."