UN Report Accuses South Sudan Leaders of Plundering Nation

President Salva Kiir greets his second deputy Benjamin Bol Mel file South Sudanese presidency photo

September 16, 2025 (NAIROBI) – South Sudan’s Ministry of Presidential Affairs overspent its budget by 584% between 2020 and 2024, while ministries for health and agriculture received just 19% and 7% of their allocations, respectively, a new UN report said on Tuesday.

The report accuses the country’s political elites of plundering public revenues and unleashing a devastating human rights crisis.

The document, titled “Plundering a Nation,” was released by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. It details how systemic corruption has diverted billions of dollars from essential services, directly causing widespread suffering and fuelling conflict.

“Corruption is not incidental; it is the engine of South Sudan’s decline,” the commission’s chairperson, Yasmin Sooka, said. “The suffering of South Sudanese civilians is a direct consequence of the brazen plundering of public revenues since independence in 2011.”

Investigators found that despite oil revenues exceeding $25.2 billion since 2011, systemic corruption means “hardly any money reaches essential services.” The country ranks at the bottom of both the UN Human Development Index and Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

The report highlights the government’s budget priorities. Between July 2020 and June 2024, the presidential affairs ministry received $557 million, nearly six times its allocation. In contrast, the health ministry was given just $29 million, the agriculture ministry received $11 million, and the ministry for gender and social welfare received $3.7 million over the four-year period.

“The diversions are not abstract budget failures – they translate into preventable deaths, widespread malnutrition, and mass exclusion from education,” said Commissioner Carlos Castresana Fernández.

The report identifies specific schemes, including an ‘Oil for Roads’ programme that allegedly channeled an estimated $2.2 billion off-budget. It implicates Vice President Benjamin Bol Mel, appointed in February 2025, stating his companies failed to deliver on promised infrastructure projects.

The commission warned that the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement is at a “breaking point” amid the corruption and political upheaval, including the recent detention of First Vice President Riek Machar.