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Exiled South Sudan activist charged in US with attempting to smuggle arms back home

Dr Peter Biar Ajak. He has been charged with violating export controls. (Photo: AFP)

By Mwangi Maina | 06 Mar 2024

Dr Peter Biar Ajak allegedly conspired to send millions of dollars worth of weapons, including rifles, grenade launchers, stinger missile systems, hand grenades, and ammunition, to South Sudan.

The American Justice Department announced on Tuesday that a prominent South Sudanese political activist, residing in the United States, has been charged with violating export controls.

Dr Peter Biar Ajak allegedly conspired to send millions of dollars worth of weapons, including rifles, grenade launchers, stinger missile systems, hand grenades, and ammunition, to his home country, South Sudan.

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Ajak was arrested along with another political activist, Abraham Chol Keech.

"As alleged, the defendants sought to unlawfully smuggle heavy weapons and ammunition from the United States into South Sudan, a country that is subject to a U.N arms embargo due to the violence between armed groups, which has killed and displaced thousands," Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division said in a statement.

According to the criminal complaint, between February 2023 and February 2024, the pair sought to illegally buy weapons from undercover law enforcement agents and smuggle them to South Sudan through a third country.

They allegedly tried to disguise an arms contract for nearly $4 million as a contract for humanitarian access.

20-year jail term

Ajak and Akeech face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of violating the Arms Export Control Act.

Ajak fled to the US in 2020, accusing President Salva Kiir of ordering him killed or abducted in Kenya, an allegation flatly denied by the government in Juba.

He founded the South Sudan Young Leaders Forum, a non-profit group that has published scathing criticisms of the South Sudanese leadership and has sought to rally the country's youth to demand better governance and an end to violence.

In May 2022, Kenyan Television Network (KTN News) apologised to Juba for airing derogatory remarks directed towards South Sudan's President Salva Kiir.

While appearing on the Kenyan-based television station virtually, the renowned activist claimed President Kiir failed to address mourners at the late Kenyan leader Mwai Kibaki's funeral service in Nairobi due to a "hangover".

The activist's remarks against the South Sudanese leader caused a diplomatic row between the two countries after South Sudan's foreign ministry handed over a protest letter to the Kenyan envoy in Juba.

KTN, in a May 2022 letter, apologised to President Kiir for what it described as "inaccurate and unfortunate remarks about him on the television".