South Sudan diverts billions meant for crumbling healthcare system, killing thousands: UN probe

An investigation by the United Nations has revealed that billions of dollars allotted to Sudan’s healthcare system have been syphoned to pay government-linked elites, amid a famine and a civil war.

The results of a two-year investigation by the independent UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, released Tuesday, show that widespread corruption has fueled one of the world’s most severe health crises. Last year, the country allocated just $7.9 million to healthcare for its 12 million citizens, an amount roughly equal to what it spent on its 12-player men’s national basketball team.

The commission said, “Corruption is killing South Sudanese: preventable deaths from illnesses are due to available resources being diverted from government services. The country has been captured by a predatory elite that has institutionalised the systematic looting of the nation’s wealth for private gain.”

How much money has been diverted?

The report, titled ‘Plundering a Nation’, says that the Ministry of Presidential Affairs spent $557 million between 2020 and 2024 on agriculture, social services, and social welfare, as compared to the mere $43.7 million on healthcare infrastructure in the same period.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Medical Unit, which exclusively caters to the president and his inner circle, received more funding in 2022-2023 than the entire national health system.

Yasmin Sooka, the chair of the UN Commission, said, “Corruption is not incidental, it is the engine of South Sudan’s decline. It is driving hunger, collapsing health systems, and causing preventable deaths, as well as fuelling deadly armed conflict over resources.”

The “Oil for Roads” program funnelled $2.2 billion to companies connected to Benjamin Bol Mel, who was appointed vice president in February. Despite receiving 60 per cent of government contracts in some years, these companies delivered less than $500 million worth of road construction, leaving approximately $1.7 billion unaccounted for.

Sudan hit by worst cholera outbreak

Last month, Cholera claimed at least 40 lives in Sudan’s Darfur region over the last week as the country weathers its worst outbreak in years, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said.

Citing rising cases of cholera which “exacerbate the worst effects of malnutrition”, the European Union called on all parties to “urgently” allow in international aid.

Medical charity MSF said the vast western region, which has been a major battleground over more than two years of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, had been hardest hit by the year-old outbreak.

“On top of an all-out war, people in Sudan are now experiencing the worst cholera outbreak the country has seen in years,” MSF said in a statement.

With inputs from agencies