A South Sudanese Catholic bishop has accused the government of focusing on destruction rather than development of the people.

The Juba Auxiliary Bishop Santo Laku said at the St Theresa Cathedral that the authorities were spending inordinately large amounts of money on purchasing weapons.

He was reacting to the government's failure to organise the country's sixth independence anniversary celebrations due to lack of money.

Buying weapons

“The government should have sold one military tank (dababa) to meet the independence celebrations budget,” he said.

“The government has been buying weapons when there is no food in the country, and civil servants went without their salaries for months,” he added.

Bishop Laku also dismissed the government's national dialogue as an initiative with no concrete objectives to solve what he termed as the ‘country’s political problems’.

South Sudan on Sunday failed to organise any national celebrations to commemorate the sixth year of secession from Sudan.

A referendum

The secession followed a referendum in which the people overwhelmingly voted from the separation of what was once Africa's largest country.

However, the post-independence period has been characterised by civil strike, pitting the loyalists of President Salva Kiir against those of his former deputy Riek Machar.

The struggle between the two factions has created a fertile ground for other unlawful elements to thrive in the world's youngest state.