A prominent South Sudanese academic and activist who lives in exile in the United States has been charged in Arizona with a Utah man born in the African country for conspiring to buy and illegally export weapons worth millions of dollars in an effort to overthrow the government.
Peter Biar Ajak fled to the United States four years ago with the help of the U.S. government after claiming that South Sudan’s president ordered his kidnapping or killing. Ajak, then 40, and his family were granted emergency visas after weeks of hiding in Kenya. He most recently lived in Maryland.
A federal criminal indictment unsealed Monday in Arizona charges Ajak Keech and Abraham Chol Keech, both 44, of Utah, with conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act and the Export Control Act, illegally purchasing weapons from South Sudan through third countries. Reform Bill. Weapons under consideration include automatic rifles such as AK-47s, grenade launchers, Stinger missile systems, grenades, sniper rifles, ammunition and other export-controlled weapons.
Although judicial officials have released the criminal complaint, the case was not available on the federal government’s online system as of Tuesday afternoon, so it was unclear whether the men had attorneys who could comment on their charges.
“It is alleged that the defendants attempted to illegally smuggle heavy weapons and ammunition from the United States into South Sudan, which is subject to a United Nations arms embargo due to violent conflicts between armed groups that have resulted in the death and displacement of thousands of people,” the Assistant U.S. Attorney said. Gen. Matthew Olson of the U.S. Department of Justice’s national security division said in a statement.
“Sanctions and export controls help ensure that U.S. weapons are not used internationally to destabilize other sovereign nations,” said U.S. Attorney Gary Restano of Arizona.
A man who answered the phone at South Sudan’s embassy in Washington on Tuesday said the embassy did not have a press officer and the ambassador was traveling and could not comment.
In 2022-23, Ajak served as a postdoctoral fellow in the International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, focusing on state formation in South Sudan, according to the program’s website. He also served as a fellow at the National Defense University’s Center for Strategic Studies in Africa and a Reagan-Fassel Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy.
On July 9, 2011, Sudan successfully voted for independence from Sudan. But widespread inter-ethnic violence and extreme human rights violations by all parties continue to plague the country.
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