UN Panel Fingers South Sudan Government in Embezzled $36m

A United Nations commission has said that high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats in South Sudan have siphoned off at least $36m in public funds, sometimes with the connivance of international corporations and banks.

The report by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan came six days after President Salva Kiir fired the country’s finance minister, the head of the tax-gathering National Revenue Authority, as well as the director of the state-owned oil company.

Sooka added that the figure relates to illegal financial movements from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, and from the National Revenue Authority.

The commission, set up in 2016, has previously accused South Sudan politicians of pocketing state funds, but this latest report provides the most detailed allegations yet.

South Sudan is struggling to cope with the aftermath of a six-year civil war that killed about 380,000 people and crippled the output of crude oil, which accounts for more than 90 per cent of the state revenue.

The September 17 reshuffle at the finance ministry, revenue authority and Nile Petroleum Corporation (NilePet) came after South Sudan’s reserves of foreign currency crashed, prompting a 37 percent slump in the value of the South Sudanese pound against the US dollar.