South Sudan’s journey to recovery from conflict may take longer than planned as the country’s elites dodge US sanctions and continue to bleed the national coffers.

Now civil society organisations and activists say looting of national monies with no repercussions may create a cycle of war as politicians and other influence peddlers jostle to get into or close to government.

The theft, which has continued unabated, even when the country was at war, means that targeted sanctions imposed on some of the elites in the country may have had nearly zero impact.

The details are contained in a recently released report by a UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, and an admission by the country’s Auditor-General, showing that as much as $73 million may have been siphoned off government coffers by individuals including those proscribed by the US government.

The activists blame President Salva Kiir’s approach of recycling senior government officials as one reason corruption plagues the country.

The Human Rights Watch said the theft had deprived the country of critical funding as well as undermined “the government’s ability to meet the needs of millions who are currently food insecure and to protect the rights to health and education.”