Addis Ababa/Juba, June 15, 2018 (SSNA) — The leadership of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-In Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) has accepted the United States call to seize assets of South Sudanese corrupt leaders who use Kenya and Uganda as a hiding hub for war money.
In a statement obtained by the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA), The Chairman of the SPLM-IO National Committee for Information and Public relations Mabior Garang de Mabior said the leadership of the armed opposition “welcomes the recommendations of the Sentry’s, John Prendergast and the suggestions by Sigal Mandelker, an Undersecretary at the US Treasury.”
“We endorse this investigation as it will help achieve one of the major objectives of our struggle to deliver to our people the promises of the liberation struggle which we have failed to do under the leadership of President Salva Kiir,” Mabior added.
The SPLM-IO official also reminds the people that “the question of corruption was one of the major issues raised by the SPLM leaders under, Dr. Riek Machar, in the December 6, 2013 Press Conference and it was the major catalyst for the current conflict.”
US’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, said on Wednesday that Trump’s administration wants East African leaders to block South Sudan’s illicit money and urged the region to consider prosecution of those who involved in looting the young nation’s wealth.
On Thursday, South Sudan’s deputy ambassador to Kenya Jimmy Makuach denied that South Sudanese government officials buy expensive houses and invest heavily in Uganda and Kenya. Makuach dismissed the United States call as “ill-motivated.”
It is widely believed in South Sudan that nearly all senior government officials are millionaires and that they looted the nation’s wealth and built or bought themselves expensive houses in Uganda, Kenya, among others.