Former South Sudan Finance Minister Arrested at Nimule Border Escaping to Uganda

The Former South Sudan finance minister Dr Bak Barnaba Chol has been arrested at the Nimule, Uganda South Sudan Border as he allegedly tried to escape to Uganda on Friday night.

According to sources, Dr Chol who was recently dropped from his cabinet position by President Salva Kiir in a sudden reshuffle, was intercepted by security personnel at around 8pm as he tried to escape to Uganda on a boda boda.

Sources further intimated that the former minister was found with large sums of U.S dollar notes during his arrest.

Footage circulating on social media shows the former minister with apparent bloodstains on his clothing following a pursuit by security forces.

Chol’s arrest comes days after he handed over his office to the newly appointed finance minister Salvatore Garang Mabiordit.

Dr Chol, a professor at the University of Juba had previously served as finance minister from August 2023 until March 2024, however his second tenure in the position only lasted three months.

By the time of this publication, the South Sudanese government hadn’t yet issued a statement on the arrest, however observers intimated that this might be part of a widening crackdown on high-profile figures in the country’s finance and security sectors

At the beginning of this week, South Sudan’s former central bank governor Moses Makur Deng Manguak was also placed under house arrest in Juba shortly after returning from medical treatment in India where he underwent head surgery.

Manguak led the Bank of South Sudan from January to August 2022.