October 9th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – A South Sudanese oil consortium has been accused by a newly released report of funding activities of militia groups who are committing atrocities in the world’s youngest country.
The report by The Sentry, a US based watch-dog, linked the consortium, Dar Petroleum Operating Company, in which Chinese- and Malaysian state-owned oil companies have large stakes, to episodes of violence, corruption and environmental degradation.
“Without their support, these atrocities could never have happened at this scale,” George Clooney, a co-founder of the Sentry said. “Facts are stubborn things.”
It also outlined ties between forces loyal to the government of President Salva Kiir and the company, a relationship apparently forged in an effort to protect the oil fields and keep revenues flowing.
South Sudan’s oil fields, the primary source of the government’s wealth, have long been one of the pathways to finance the civil war.
Clooney, further said his role is to shine the spotlight on the overlooked involvement of international players that has sustained the war.
“These people have every right to live and not be raped and not be kicked off of their land and not be murdered,” he said of South Sudanese civilians.
But the detailed report attempts to further shore up the evidence of the international players believed to be complicit in the civil war, which has lasted six years, almost as long as the country has existed.
The Sentry was co-founded by the actor George Clooney and John Prendergast, a rights activist.
