The Embassy of South Sudan in Nairobi has been shuttered after the government fell behind on rental payments by at least four months, according to embassy staff and South Sudanese nationals who visited the mission. Deng is expected to assume his post at the Nairobi mission in September, after Kiir urged incoming diplomats to maintain high professional standards in representing South Sudan abroad. This is not the first time the Nairobi embassy has faced a similar crisis. South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, has been contending with a severe fiscal crisis driven by its heavy dependence on oil revenues. The Nairobi mission has served as one of the country's most strategically important diplomatic posts since independence.