Investigation links Global oil giants, influential Westerners as facilitators and benefactors of South Sudan war

By Amos Fofung

A global link facilitators, benefactors, and influencers who either directly or indirectly benefit from the war in South Sudan War has been exposed due to an investigation conducted by The Sentry organization. 

An investigative and policy team that follows the dirty money connected to African war criminals and transnational war profiteers and seeks to shut those benefiting from violence out of the international financial system.

The investigation shows how corporations have profited from the country's civil war - and the links between armed groups, global oil giants, as well as British and American citizens.

For years now, the world's youngest country has been thrown into civil war in what many term a man-made humanitarian crisis that engulfed the country since 2013.

Titled; The Taking of South Sudan”, the report names tycoons, brokers, and multinational corporations that are Complicit in Hijacking the World's Newest Nation.

“The men who liberated South Sudan proceeded to hijack the country’s fledgling governing institutions, loot its resources, and launched a war in 2013 that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions of people,” an executive summary of the report reads.

“They did not act alone. The South Sudanese politicians and military officials ravaging the world’s newest nation received essential support from individuals and corporations from across the world who have reaped profits from those dealings. Nearly every instance of confirmed or alleged corruption or financial crime in South Sudan examined by The Sentry has involved links to an international corporation, a multinational bank, a foreign government or high-end real estate abroad…. the extent to which external actors have been complicit in the taking of South Sudan.”

Naming and shaming those benefiting from the war, the report notes that benefactors have pocket billions of dollars and will reap more so long as the war rages on.

“The local kleptocrats and their international partners—from Chinese-Malaysian oil giants and British tycoons to networks of traders from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, and Uganda—have accumulated billions of dollars. The country’s natural resources have been plundered, lethal militia and military units responsible for atrocities have received financing and kleptocrats have lined their pockets with untold billions of dollars allocated by government programs meant to improve the livelihood of some of the poorest, most vulnerable people in the world.”

Released in September 2019, the report profiles international actors who have provided

direct support to South Sudanese perpetrators of violence; actors who have formed private businesses with top South Sudanese officials responsible for human rights abuses and international actors who have benefited from major public procurement scandals in South Sudan. 

As per the report; “the men who liberated South Sudan proceeded to hijack the country’s fledgling governing institutions, loot its resources, and launched a war in 2013 that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions of people.”

Reiterating the devastating effects on the war-torn state, they added that “they did not act alone. The South Sudanese politicians and military officials ravaging the world’s newest nation received essential support from individuals and corporations from across the world who have reaped profits from those dealings. Nearly every instance of confirmed or alleged corruption or financial crime in South Sudan examined by The Sentry has involved links to an international corporation, a multinational bank, a foreign government or high-end real estate abroad. This report examines several illustrative examples of international actors linked to violence and grand corruption in order to demonstrate the extent to which external actors have been complicit in the taking of South Sudan.”

The report directly points to local kleptocrats and their international partners— “from Chinese-Malaysian oil giants and British tycoons to networks of traders from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Uganda—” whom they accuse of having accumulated billions of dollars.

“The country’s natural resources have been plundered, lethal militia and military units responsible for atrocities have received financing and kleptocrats have lined their pockets with untold billions of dollars allocated by government programs meant to improve the livelihood of some of the poorest, most vulnerable people in the world. The spoils of this heist are coursing through the international financial system in the form of shell companies, stuffed bank accounts, luxury real estate and comfortable safe havens around the world for the extended families of those involved in violence and corruption.”

Urging a broad-base investigation into the scandal in South Sudan, the report warns of more that any peace efforts will yield no fruits as these “gang” will rather not lose their mines.