South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"

By Awan Achiek
The government has refuted claims that it inked a loan deal to a tune of 13 billion U.S dollars with a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based firm in exchange for oil, in what has been criticized as a shady deal that will keep the country in debt for more than 20 years.
Jacob Mijok Korok, deputy minister for information, communication technology and postal services, denied that they have acquired such a huge loan from the UAE firm.
“This 13 billion dollars or whatever on social media is not credible information, it is on social media and we can’t comment on that,” Korok said last week during the weekly cabinet meeting in Juba.
He said the government can’t deal with rumors that are not credible.
“The government can’t deal with rumors or something circulating in the media, government deals with credible information through government channels. That one is just something moving on social media and nobody actually proves it right or wrong because it is something circulating on social media,” Korok said.
U.S based Bloomberg news reported that South Sudan is set to receive a $13 billion loan from a Dubai Company run by distant relatives of the Abu Dhabi royal family in exchange for cheap oil.
The alleged deal will allow the Dubai Company to access oil at a discounted price for up to 20 years, with South Sudan receiving $10 less per barrel than the global price.
It claimed that deal was negotiated on the sidelines of the COP28 climate change summit in Dubai in December, whose presidency at the time came under fire for allegedly looking to use the event as an opportunity to agree to lucrative new fossil fuel deals.
The term sheet seen by The Dawn, however, states that the agreement was signed on Dec. 28 by former finance minister Bak Barnaba and HBK DOP chairman Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan.
It remains unclear if the initial $5.24 billion tranche of the loan has been received.