Dear Supporter,

Over the past several years, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has employed a new approach to create financial leverage aimed at disrupting the corruption and exploitation of natural resources fueling mass atrocities in South Sudan. A new brief released today by The Sentry analyzes core elements of this strategy that The Sentry and Enough Project have supported:

• Network Sanctions: The Treasury Department has begun to deploy sanctions in a “network” strategy that targets not just individual spoilers but also the companies that they own or control, along with their key financial facilitators and commercial enablers.
• Anti Money Laundering Advisories: Issued by its financial intelligence unit, FinCEN, these advisories help banks understand what to look for when doing business with those with financial interests in the affected region.
• Regional Diplomacy: High-level, historic visits by U.S. Treasury Under Secretary Sigal Mandelker and Assistant Secretary Marshall Billingslea shined a light on the role of Uganda and Kenya in serving as entry points to the international financial system for South Sudan’s corrupt elites.

South Sudan’s ruling elites and their international financial facilitators rely on access to U.S. dollars and the ability to funnel money outside of the country in order to obfuscate the origins of their ill-gotten gains. The Treasury Department’s new strategy has therefore begun to show impact on the calculations of South Sudan's decision makers and made it more difficult for outsiders to exploit instability and conflict in the country for personal profit. While this is encouraging and helped contribute to a peace agreement negotiated in 2018, it must only be the beginning of a campaign to create leverage for lasting peace and systemic change by incentivizing South Sudan's leaders to act in the interests of its people and not for personal gain.

TAKE ACTION: Promote the use of robust financial tools and strong institutions in South Sudan

Please click here to read our latest brief on the Treasury Department’s new approach.

Sincerely,
Ian Schwab
Director of Advocacy and Impact Strategy
Enough Project