It's been 10 years since South Sudan won its independence. Corruption by the ruling elite and transnational illicit flows have denied the country both peace and prosperity.
THREAD on @C4ADS' work to illuminate the networks behind violence & corruption in South Sudan.
Last year, we launched conflict.id, a project to catalog imagery of weapons and vehicles used by warring parties in South Sudan prior to the UN embargo. It provides a window into the origins of weapons sustaining the conflict, and a baseline for conflict researchers.
This includes everything from analysis of weapons like NORINCO CQ rifles contributed by @CalibreObscura to MRAPs and other armored vehicles used by the SSPDF and non-state armed groups.
In 2019, we released MONEY TREE. @_stella_cooper and Cecile Neumeister used trade data, corporate records, and more to explore how domestic and foreign political elites profit from South Sudan's illicit teak market to the detriment of local communities. c4ads.org/reports
We continue to work on South Sudan, monitoring arms embargo violations, transnational illicit trade, and domestic corruption.
I am still optimistic about the future of South Sudan — it has a new generation of bright, ambitious citizens who expect more of their leaders.
But for that future to be realized, global vulnerabilities to illicit finance, illicit natural resource extraction, and conflict finance must be closed. Accountability must be realized. South Sudan's level of corruption can only occur in a global system that permits it.
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Groundbreaking report from CNN's @clarissaward on human rights abuses by Russian private military contractors in the Central African Republic. Vitally important that this information is now being documented publicly. THREAD.
CNN interviews indicate that Russian mercenaries have been involved in the indiscriminate killing of civilians, torture, and forced disappearances, corroborating earlier statements by the UN Working Group on Mercenaries news.un.org/en/story/2021/…
The new UN Panel of Experts report on #Libya is groundbreaking in its use of flight analysis to demonstrate arms embargo violations. I'm really proud of the work our team @C4ADS contributed to support their investigations (including the image here:)
Our analysis of ADSB flight data with our platform @icarus_flights (viaualized here in #keplergl) illuminates how companies like Cham Wings have provided an air bridge to support Haftar