Billions of dollars have vanished from South Sudan’s public coffers over the past decade, according to a damning new report by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. Released on September 16, 2025, the report paints a stark picture of a nation where, despite the promise of independence in 2011, government corruption has flourished while the majority of its people are left hungry and impoverished. The U.N. findings, reported by the Associated Press and other outlets, detail how political officials allegedly siphoned off vast sums through a series of elaborate schemes, leaving the country in a deepening humanitarian crisis.
“While a small group of powerful actors pillage and loot the country’s wealth and resources, enriching themselves, the state has effectively abdicated its sovereign responsibilities to its population, outsourcing critical services — such as the provision of food, health care, and education to international donors,” the commission’s report states. The authors did not mince words: “Corruption is killing South Sudanese.”
South Sudan’s population has grown to over 11 million, but the benefits of independence have failed to reach most citizens. The report points to a deepening food crisis, with 76 out of the country’s 79 counties gripped by severe food insecurity. The U.N. notes that less than 1% of the federal budget from 2020 to 2024 was allocated to ministries supporting food security, a shockingly low figure for a nation facing such dire need. Instead, the government has repeatedly postponed its first-ever national elections, most recently in 2024, claiming a lack of funds as the reason.
The centerpiece of the corruption, according to the U.N., is the government’s oil-for-roads program. This initiative was intended as South Sudan’s keystone infrastructure project, funded by oil revenues—the backbone of the country’s economy. But the commission found that $1.7 billion of the $2.2 billion earmarked for the program is unaccounted for, and a staggering 95% of the roads promised have not been completed. The report alleges that large portions of the funds were funneled to companies linked to Benjamin Bol Mel, a businessman with close ties to President Salva Kiir. Bol Mel was appointed to one of five vice presidency positions this year and is widely speculated to be a potential successor to Kiir. He and several of his companies are currently under U.S. sanctions.
The government, for its part, has pushed back forcefully. In a written statement, officials dismissed many of the allegations as “absurd,” claiming the report contained “methodological errors” and exceeded the commission’s mandate. They also argued that they had not been given enough time to respond to the findings. Regarding the oil-for-roads accusations, the government said the claims were “meant to smear the good image of the people of South Sudan and its leadership.”
Yet the U.N. report was unsparing in its details. In addition to the oil-for-roads debacle, investigators allege that tens of millions of dollars were captured by Crawford Capital Ltd., a “politically connected” company, through irregular government e-services. These included the processing of electronic visas, petroleum import and export licenses, and the electronic collection of taxes. Such schemes, the report suggests, have become a pattern in South Sudan’s post-independence governance.
The human cost of this corruption is hard to overstate. South Sudan ranks among the lowest in the world on most development and quality of life indicators. Approximately one in ten children dies in childbirth, and secondary school enrollment sits at a mere 5%. During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, public funds spent on the president’s personal medical unit actually surpassed those spent on health care for the entire nation. The government has pointed to international sanctions and declining oil production as obstacles to delivering basic services, but critics and international observers contend that the real problem lies in the misappropriation of resources at the highest levels.
The U.N. Commission’s findings echo a 2021 report, which uncovered tens of millions of dollars in unaccounted-for government revenue—what it called “a tiny fraction of the overall pattern of theft.” The latest report, however, comes at a particularly fraught moment for South Sudan. Fears are mounting that the country, which endured decades of civil war before its independence, could be sliding back toward large-scale conflict.
On September 11, 2025, opposition leader Riek Machar was suspended from his role as first vice president after being indicted on charges including murder, terrorism, and crimes against humanity. The government alleges that Machar has links to a local militia that recently overran a military garrison near the Ethiopian border. He has been under house arrest since March. The timing of these developments has only heightened anxieties about South Sudan’s political stability and future.
For ordinary South Sudanese, the consequences of this high-level corruption are felt every day. Food security analysts cited by the U.N. report say that the vast majority of the country’s counties are in the throes of severe food insecurity, and the state’s abdication of its responsibilities has left critical services to be delivered by international donors. In a country where the government’s spending on the president’s personal health care outpaces its investment in national health, the sense of abandonment is palpable.
Despite the government’s denials and efforts to shift blame to external factors, the evidence of systemic corruption is difficult to ignore. The U.N. report lays out a comprehensive account of how public revenues intended for national development have been siphoned off, enriching a small elite at the expense of millions. The oil-for-roads program, once touted as a symbol of progress, now stands as a stark reminder of the gulf between promise and reality in South Sudan.
International observers and aid organizations are left to pick up the pieces, providing food, health care, and education where the government has failed. The cycle of corruption and neglect has become so entrenched that, as the U.N. report bluntly puts it, “corruption is killing South Sudanese.”
As South Sudan approaches what should be a defining moment in its history, the questions raised by the U.N. commission’s findings remain urgent and unresolved. Will the country’s leaders address the rampant corruption that has crippled its development, or will the cycle of theft, denial, and suffering continue? For now, the people of South Sudan wait, hoping for a future where their nation’s wealth is used for their benefit, rather than lining the pockets of the powerful few.