South Sudan government is still awarding contracts to companies owned by individuals designated for international sanctions.

In a recent interview with Radio Tamazuj, Beko Konyi, head of the Greater Pibor Administrative Area’s mining and investment commission, revealed that they granted concessions to large-scale mining activities in the gold-rich area of Jebel Boma.

“Actually, for all these times, mining was being carried out manually on an individual basis for local consumption, but now we granted concessions to private companies to go and do mining in Jebel Boma,” Beko said.

“These companies include Al-Cardinal, which is an international one, and another one which is owned by the locals, and it is called P & Shadow,” he revealed.

It remains unclear who owns P & Shadow company.

The mining and investment commissioner pointed out that exploration has been completed, and some machines have already been shipped to the area, but gold mining has stalled due to flooding in the area.

The government selected the Al-Cardinal firm despite earlier reports linking its owner, Sudanese businessman Ashraf Seed Ahmed Hussein, also known as Al Cardinal, to corruption.

In October 2019, the United States sanctioned Al-Cardinal, for bribery, kickbacks and procurement fraud with senior government officials.

In April 2021, the United Kingdom slapped sanctions on Ashraf Seed Ahmed Hussein for allegedly participating in dubious deals and siphoning monies from South Sudan.

When asked if there was a competitive bidding process to select Al-Cardinal to do gold mining in Jebel Boma County, the local official said several companies competed, but only the two companies were selected with the involvement of the National Ministry of Mining.

“Everything has not started now because of rains. For this local company, equipment had already reached Jebel Boma town, but they could not cross the river because of the floods,” he said.

Land dispute

Tensions have reportedly been rising among communities of the Greater Pibor Area since the awarding of contracts for gold mining in Jebel Boma.

Peter Ogalla Ochudho, a leader of the Anyuak community, called on the transitional government to halt any gold mining activities in Suri/Awetaballa Payam, warning that such a plan could trigger violence in the area.   

“The government of the Greater Pibor Administrative Area wants to take our resources. As we speak, equipment for gold mining is already in Jebel Boma,” he said.

“The area is disputed. Awettaballa belongs to Anyuak, but after the creation of the Greater Pibor Administrative Area, they annexed it to the Murle community,” he said.

The Murle community leader could not immediately be reached for comment.