Associated Press: US pressures South Sudan’s oil sector over civil war

JUBA, South Sudan — The United States is taking action against 15 South Sudanese oil-related entities in an attempt to stem the financial flow fuelling the country’s civil war.

South Sudan’s government and “corrupt official actors” are using the revenue to purchase weapons, fund militias and undermine peace, the State Department said in a statement Wednesday.

This is the latest attempt to hold accountable those accused of blocking the path to peace in the five-year conflict, which has created Africa’s fastest-growing refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide in 1994…

…The U.S. announcement comes shortly after two reports by investigative groups that allege that South Sudan’s state-owned oil company, Nile Petroleum, is spending millions of dollars to fund the civil war as well as militias accused of committing atrocities.

The U.S. should continue the strategy of increasing pressure on “the leaders and spoilers who have hijacked the oil sector, as well as on the networks that have allowed them to use oil revenue to finance the war, line their pockets, and move money abroad,” said J.R. Mailey, special investigations director at The Sentry, one of the investigative groups…

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