South Sudan wanted sanctions relief for top officials

After agreeing to accept deportees from the United States last year, South Sudan sent a list of requests to Washington that included American support for the prosecution of an opposition leader and sanctions relief for a senior official accused of diverting over a billion dollars in public funds. The requests, contained in a pair of diplomatic communications made public by the State Department this month, offer a glimpse into the kind of benefits that some Governments may have sought as they negotiated with the US over the matter of receiving deportees. 

In the documents, the US expresses “appreciation” to South Sudan for accepting the deportees and details the names, nationalities and crimes for which each individual was convicted. In July, South Sudan became the first African country to receive third-country deportees from the US. Rwanda, Eswatini, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea have since received deportees. The eight deportees to South Sudan included nationals of Mexico, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and South Sudan itself.