Violence, death and illiteracy...the bad things about South Sudan

There are many bad things about South Sudan today: Violence, death and illiteracy. Then there is the Sentry report.

The document compiled by the Sentry, a watchdog associated with actor George Clooney and titled “War Crimes Shouldn’t Pay: Stopping the looting and destruction in South Sudan” says South Sudanese politicians and military officers have been looting the country in spite of the violence.

The document actually confirmed what had been rumoured or reported before. But it gives plenty of inferences on how South Sudan has fallen among thieves.

“The key catalyst of South Sudan’s civil war has been competition for the grand prize—control over state assets and the country’s abundant natural resources—between rival kleptocratic networks led by President Kiir and (former) Vice President Machar,” it says.

If summed up in four categories, the 66-page report simply says that:

In South Sudan, military and politics are good careers

In South Sudan, you are influential if you are either a military general or an elected politician. This country has about 200 soldiers calling themselves generals. Whether earned or christened is debate for another day but there is a reason why.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan with which it had had decades of civil war. It appears everyone who led a group of fighters would eventually qualify to be a general.

That is why we have General Salva Kiir Mayardit, the President and General Paul Malong, the Chief of the General Staff of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

But like every organisation, you need politicians to steady the ship. In South Sudan, the line between military and politics is thin. That is why Salva Kiir, a bush war veteran against Sudan, is the President who still does business with his military colleagues.

The Clooney report indicates that Kiir’s family businesses are linked to Malong’s dealings, for example.

Some companies have similar shareholders or simply do business together by looting the national resources through clandestine tender deals.

The Sentry found that General Malong’s son, Garang Malong once held shares in a company which Thiik Kiir, son of President Salva Kiir, also partly owned. The firm had a stake in another company, which is a joint venture with several Chinese and Zimbabwean businessmen. Malong’s son has since ceded his stake in the firm, but you never know where else they collaborate.

War is lucrative business, for warlords

More than two million people have been displaced from their homes since December 2013, and several tens of thousands killed in the violence. One report by British consultants, Frontier Economics, last year estimated that South Sudan will lose $148 billion over the next two decades if the violence continues to 2020.

That, however, has been the small price to pay for the warlords.

The Sentry shows that both sides of the violence; the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA) led by Salva Kiir and the SPLA-in-Opposition led by Riek Machar have continually been getting richer despite the war cutting into that country’s economy.

Gen Malong, for example, is legally supposed to earn $45,000 (Sh4.5 million) per year as government salary. But he has, in the past three years acquired luxurious villas in Uganda and a gated mansion worth Sh200 million in Nairobi.

Machar and Kiir, too own houses in the same neighbourhood in Nairobi and have their children smoking cigars, drinking at the Kempinski and driving SUVs.

Getting richer for these warlords is a direct opposite of what South Sudan has been since December 2013.

The World Bank reports that the country has grown poorer with number of those below poverty line rising from four in every ten in 2013 to six in every ten today.

It has had a negative GDP growth since then, averaging -6 per cent with inflation reaching 50 per cent, the highest in this region.

The Sentry report shows the children and close relatives of warlords go to top schools in neighbouring countries, with some in Kenya going to a private school that costs Sh1 million a year. But South Sudan has invested only five per cent of its national budget on tertiary education and only three in every ten adults can read and write.

With about 70 per cent of all children between 6 and 17 years out of school, the pleasures the warlords enjoy are extremely ironic.

In South Sudan, warlords and politicians are above the law

South Sudan leaders have bickered in the past over whether to punish perpetrators of violence or whether reconciliation should be the only way of healing wounds.

The Sentry report however shows that breaking the law transcends killing or maiming civilians. South Sudanese leaders have broken financial laws they drafted. For example, while it is illegal for constitutional office-holders to do business outside government while still in office, deal in corrupt practices or nepotism, findings in this report show President Kiir’s 12-year-old son, for example, owned a quarter of the shares of an investment company formed in February this year. It also shows that several of his children, his wife Mary Ayen and his relatives own stakes in firms that do business with the government.

UN sanctions ineffective on South Sudan

In March last year, the UN imposed targeted sanctions on a number of generals both in the SPLA and the SPLA-in-Opposition, for having a role in killing civilians and other war crimes.

One of the targeted men was Gen Gabriel Jok Riak, a field commander within the SPLA. By imposing sanctions on him, the UN Security Council hoped member countries would curtail his movement, have his assets frozen and make him unable to continue commanding soldiers against civilians.

This didn’t happen. He has travelled into Kenya and Uganda since then and still owns a house in Kampala. In fact Sentry investigations showed he has continued to run his bank accounts uninhibited, including receiving huge cash that could amount to money laundering.