Try to overthrow an oppressive foreign dictatorship, and you may get a long prison sentence. South Sudan is ruled by an oppressive government that has committed genocide against ethnic groups other than the dominant Dinka ethnic group, and the State Department tells Americans “do not travel” there, because government officials will shake you down at roadblocks — even if you are a relief worker or American — and “any journalistic work there is very dangerous. Journalists regularly report being harassed in South Sudan, and many have been killed while covering the conflict.” The country has no economic or political freedom, and is more oppressive than North Korea according to worldwide rankings by Freedom House.
But a “Harvard University fellow has been charged with attempting to buy and smuggle millions of dollars in arms to South Sudan to aid in a coup,” reports The College Fix:
Peter Biar Ajak, 40, fled South Sudan with the help of the American government four years ago after claiming that he was a target of the country’s president, the Daily Mail reported. He was granted refugee status, and has been working as a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
But Ajak, and his confederate Abraham Chol Keech, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives and works in Utah, are now alleged to have been on a buying spree to send $4 million worth of Stinger missile systems, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, automatic rifles, and ammunition back home to support a violent uprising, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed March 4.
“Keech and Ajak knew that smuggling the weapons and ammunition out of the country without a license from the U.S. government was illegal and would violate U.S. laws. Nevertheless, in or around February 2024, they caused funds to be transferred to undercover agents through U.S. Company-1 to purchase approximately $4 million worth of munitions and other goods for illegal export to South Sudan,” the complaint reads.
Ajak, a former World Bank economist who lives in Maryland, had been in talks to buy arms with what turned out to be undercover federal agents since at least Feb. 20, 2023. The complaint alleges Ajak and Keech attempted to purchase arms from undercover law enforcement agents “to effect a nondemocratic regime change in South Sudan,” according to the Harvard Crimson.
Ajak, who has a master’s in public administration from the Kennedy School in 2009, was put on administrative leave last Wednesday following the DOJ charges, the student newspaper reported. Ajak and Harvard declined to comment to the Crimson.
“Ajak, a former child soldier, is well-known among the African community in Washington D.C. as an exiled South Sudanese opposition leader and purported peace activist,” the Daily Mail noted.
South Sudan, which became a country in 2011, is subject to a U.N. arms embargo due to the extreme levels of violence between armed factions, as well as the displacement of thousands of people.
The Department of Justice summarized the allegations in a March 5 press release:
As alleged in court documents, between at least February 2023 and February 2024, Keech and Ajak sought to illegally purchase weapons and related export-controlled items from undercover law enforcement agents and smuggle those weapons and items from the United States to South Sudan through a third country. The defendants knew that South Sudan was subject to an arms embargo and that exporting weapons and ammunition from the United States to South Sudan without a license from the U.S. government was illegal and would violate U.S. law. For example, the defendants openly discussed the illegality of the transaction, expressed the need to be discreet, and agreed to pay a risk fee for the weapons because of the illegal nature of the arms sale. In addition, to facilitate the smuggling scheme, the defendants discussed disguising the weapons as humanitarian aid and paying bribes.
If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison for conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act, up to 20 years for conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act, and up to 10 years for smuggling arms from the United States.
South Sudan has been the site of ethnic genocide and a savage civil war, with its military killing minority ethnic groups such as the Nuer, the Shilluk, the Moru, the Dongotonu, the Kuku, the Lotuko, and the Avukaya. The military faced a rebellion by members of its second largest ethnic group, the Nuer. Nuer militiamen killed members of the dominant ethnic group, the Dinka, who control the military. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in ethnic violence in South Sudan.
Last year, Romania’s ambassador was recalled after he jokingly referred to African diplomats as “monkeys.” This angered the African diplomats more than the genocide that took place in South Sudan, which killed hundreds of thousands of black people.
