South Sudan’s fighting directed at highest levels

Machar was reportedly injured in fighting against government troops in the South Sudanese capital Juba in July, and fled the country.

South Sudan’s civil war began in December 2013 between supporters of Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and former Vice President Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer.

Investigators at The Sentry, an initiative co-founded by actor George Clooney, said during a press conference Monday that they used information from Facebook and Instagram to confirm how officials had spent the profits they made from controlling South Sudan’s natural resources.

The report claimed that a system of worldwide banks, businesses, arms brokers, real estate firms and lawyers was facilitating the corrupt practices of many South Sudanese officials, with large payments being made to the personal bank accounts of high-ranking generals by foreign companies. Kiir fired him as vice-president.

The report says the country’s leaders, including some military generals, have much of their wealth in the form of high-end properties in neighboring countries such as Uganda and Kenya.

The report, on arms flows and security threats to South Sudan since a transitional government was formed in April, strengthens the case for an arms embargo, a move recommended by the monitors to the Security Council in January.

An additional 4,000 United Nations peacekeepers have been authorized to enter South Sudan in order to restore calm following the recent violence. Inflation has reached 660 percent and a recent confidential report by the United Nations claimed that the government was spending money on arms rather than funding social services in the country.

The report also says officials have focused on “mobilizing their respective tribes”, which has worsened ethnic tensions.

A new report by a USA -based watchdog group accuses South Sudan’s rival leaders of amassing wealth overseas amid a conflict in which tens of thousands have been killed.

Heads of organizations that met with the diplomats say they have been ordered to report to the government. His colleague US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power recently visited Juba at the head of a UN Security Council delegation and pledged to cooperate with the government of Salva Kiir.

The report adds: “This attack was well coordinated and can not be considered as an opportunistic act of violence and robbery”.