The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on three South Sudan leaders for alleged corruption and fuelling civil strife.
A Treasury Department statement on Wednesday named the culprits as former army chief Paul Malong, Information minister and state spokesman Michael Maluei and deputy Chief of Defence Staff Malek Reuben Riak.
Additionally, the Department imposed sanctions on three companies owned by Gen Riak.
The statement came just days after the US threatened to cut aid to South Sudan if violence continued.
Treasury Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, said they had also released an advisory to US financial institutions, warning them against approving moving proceeds from corruption by senior South Sudanese political figures.
According to the Department, an estimated six million people in South Sudan faced life threatening hunger as another four million, including two million refugees, remained displaced from their homes.
Earlier reports revealed that top South Sudan officials and armed group leaders, including the three sanctioned individuals, had amassed and offshored millions of dollars through an array of questionable business enterprises, while fuelling conflict and atrocities in one of the world’s deadliest war zones.
The US decision has attracted support from international experts who have been pressing for the sanctions since the outbreak of violence.
The founding director at the Enough Project, Mr John Prendegast, praised the US action, describing it as a critical step forward to end the war in the young nation.
He, however, insisted that the individual sanctions were inadequate to address the real situation in South Sudan.
“Individual sanctions are inadequate in the face of the violent kleptocratic system that has been assembled under President Kiir’s administration. The only way to impact the calculations of those doing irreparable damage to the world’s newest country is to impose network sanctions on the leadership of the government and rebels and their commercial collaborators, both domestic and international.
“These network sanctions should be combined with aggressive anti-money laundering initiatives to really undermine their ability to move illicit finances through the international banking system. No peace effort has a chance of succeeding until a serious cost has been imposed on those who are profiting from war both financially and politically,” he said.
Another Enough Project official, Mr Brian Adeba, praised the Trump Administration for sanctioning South Sudan’s most controversial leaders, who have been accused of inciting violence and committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“This is an important step that addresses the impunity and intransigence of those who perpetuate war in South Sudan,” Mr Adeba said.
A senior investigator at The Sentry, Ms Debra LaPrevotte, also said the US action was a welcome step to address the grand corruption in the war-torn country.
He said The Sentry would help the US government in tracing the assets of the culprits and work to ensure the recovery of the looted wealth.