South Sudan’s Mortgaged Future: The Fulfillment of Dr John Garang’s Prophecy
By PaanLuel Wël, Juba, South Sudan
“UK court orders South Sudan to pay $657 million to Afreximbank. The U.K. High Court granted Afreximbank’s request for a summary judgment on May 8 after the South Sudanese government and its central bank failed to respond to the lawsuit or attend hearings.”
Thursday, 15 May 2025 (PW) – In a devastating blow to South Sudan’s already fragile economy, a British court has ordered the world’s youngest nation to pay $657 million to the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) over defaulted loans. This judgment represents more than just financial failure; it symbolizes the very betrayal of national sovereignty that founding father Dr. John Garang prophetically warned about.
“After our job is done, that generation will take over; they will cut a large piece of land with pangas and sell it cheaply for a bottle of beer,” Dr John Garang once cautioned. His words now ring with painful clarity as South Sudan’s leadership appears to have mortgaged the country’s future through reckless borrowing and mismanagement.
The U.K. High Court’s May 8th ruling grants Afreximbank’s request for summary judgment following South Sudan’s complete failure to respond to the lawsuit or even attend hearings. This shocking absence speaks volumes about the government’s approach to its international obligations. The loans, originally secured for trade infrastructure and COVID-19 relief, now stand as monuments to fiscal irresponsibility.
Perhaps most concerning is South Sudan’s pattern of using its natural resources as collateral. By securing loans with crude oil, the nation’s leadership has effectively pawned its most valuable asset. A September 2023 proposal to repay via crude oil shipments further demonstrates how the country’s resources are being leveraged to service unsustainable debt.
While the government points to “unforeseen circumstances” like flooding, regional conflict, and volatile oil prices as justifications for default, these challenges were entirely predictable for a nation in South Sudan’s position. What remains unexplained is how the borrowed funds were utilized and why they failed to strengthen the country’s resilience against these expected difficulties.
As U.N. officials warn that South Sudan risks sliding back into civil war, a conflict that previously claimed 400,000 lives and displaced millions, this financial crisis adds another dimension to the nation’s troubles. The question remains: how can a country rebuild when its resources are increasingly claimed by foreign creditors?
Dr. John Garang’s prophetic warning was not inevitable, it was a caution, a path to avoid. Yet today’s leadership has steered directly toward it, trading long-term sovereignty for short-term gains. The British court’s ruling isn’t just a financial judgment; it’s a damning indictment of governance failures that have betrayed the very foundation of South Sudan’s independence.
For the citizens of South Sudan, the court’s decision represents another broken promise in a long line of disappointments. The struggle for independence was meant to secure self-determination, not to replace one form of external control with another.
Instead, through financial mismanagement, the country finds itself increasingly beholden to international creditors, a form of economic dependency that undermines the very freedom so many died to achieve.
And unless we act, the bottle of beer will be finished, the land will be gone, and the nation will be left to wonder what freedom was ever truly for.
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