South Sudan was less than two years old when the war started in 2011. And General Gregory Vassilli Dmitry - not a Russian, but South Sudanese and brother-in-law of head of state Salva Kiir - knew where the main battleground would be: "We are buried in Paloich, we will not leave here," he told Bloomberg News in December , 2013.
It was also clear to rebel chief Riek Machar: "We want to control the oil fields, that's our oil." Paloich should be taken "to refuse Kiir the money to buy more weapons," Machar told The New York Times.
What followed was five years of near-constant civil war - not just in the oil-rich states of Unity and Upper Nile, but across the country. More than 380,000 people have since died as a result of the war and its aftermath, millions have fled.
It was clear early on that the powerful men of the new country were making millions of dollars abroad while the people were starving at home. But a civil war in a resource-rich country always attracts foreign businessmen hoping for quick dollars.
Who that is, is now the report "The Taking of South Sudan" open. The research network Sentry, funded by the Enough Project by Hollywood actor George Clooney and human rights activist John Prendergast, has assembled who has made a lot of money with South Sudanese oil during the war.
In doing so, international companies emerge who are doing strange business with politicians, the military and intelligence staff and helping to plunder the young state.
Al-Cardinal - a man for the dodgy deals
Especially dazzling is the Sudanese businessman Ashraf Seed Ahmed Hussein, called al-Cardinal. Already in 2006, shortly after the peace agreement between Sudan and South Sudanese rebels, who were later to head the young country, he made strange deals with his numerous companies:
- The administration in the semi-autonomous South, he sold 300 Toyota SUVs at a price overstated by 100 percent according to the Sentry Report. He had to go to jail for a short while, but his continued buoyant trade with the government of South Sudan did not hurt that.
- Shortly after the beginning of the war in late 2013, South Sudan, with the help of al-Cardinal, obtained amphibious vehicles imported from Russia - floating tanks, which were used by the army to displace people as large as themselves from violence and expulsion into the Sudd, a wetland area of the Nile Belgium, had saved. The Sudd gained notoriety because the frightened refugees lived there for days on islands or in the water and had to eat water lilies to survive. The floating tanks made her even more afraid. According to research by Sentry and the civic side C4ADS part of the business ran through a company in Saudi Arabia, in which al-Cardinal has a 39 percent interest.
- In addition, his company "Al Cardinal General Trading" had been commissioned by the state without a tender to import 1000 tractors from Belarus. The whole order has not been delivered so far, many of the agricultural vehicles that arrived could not be used.
For al-Cardinal, these and other businesses have apparently been worthwhile: In 2017, he bought eleven luxury apartments in Dubai worth a total of more than ten million US dollars, court records show in the Sentry report.
Hotel bills of 686,000 US dollars
Part of al-Cardinal's numerous bills paid the poorer state oil, the government's main source of revenue. What happens to the raw material and who benefits from it is largely decided by Dar Petroleum, a business combination:
- It is dominated by the largest shareholder China National Petroleum Corporation, a Chinese state-owned company.
- The Malaysian oil company Petronas is also involved with 40 percent,
- as well as the notorious NSS, according to UN experts.
According to the Sentry report, the South Sudanese government jumped with Dar Petroleum as if the corporate accounts were a private treasure trove: in 2018, under its Chinese president Zhou Zuokun, the company was to pay for the hotel accounts of then oil minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth.
Jok Solomon / REUTERS
Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, oil minister of South Sudan, had his hotel bills paid by the Dar Petroleum Group
The minister spent between $ 30,000 and $ 59,000 a month in a luxury hotel in the capital, Juba. Total Gatkuoth oil company's total cost over $ 686,000, according to the Sentry report. A letter that the SPIEGEL was able to obtain orders the payment of the attached invoices.
The order came from the Ministry of Oil, which was to be carried out by Radaman Chadar Dhok, vice-president of Dar Petroleum - but not only a business boss, but also a member of the NSS national intelligence service, as Sentry researched.
Dar Petroleum
Zhou Zuokun, President of Dar Petroleum, and Intelligence Major Ramadan Chadar Dhok as Zhou's Vice
The NSS employed Dhok 2017 in the rank of Major General. He also runs a private security company, which in turn was a secret service agent, providing security on Dar Petroleum premises.
In order to combat corruption in South Sudan, the Sentry study said, network sanctions were needed, not only affecting individuals, but also their personal environment, companies and financiers at home and abroad. At least as important: The powerful warlords in South Sudan have to strip their uniforms and finally make policy for the youngest country in the world.