So why DO we give £200m to this Cowboy Dictator's regime? George Clooney accuses South Sudan leader of financial corruption as girls are raped and tortured... and Britain ...

Hollywood actor and human rights campaigner George Clooney has unveiled a devastating report into the ‘corrupt kleptocracy’ of South Sudan, where nearly £200 million of the UK’s foreign aid is spent every year.

The investigation accuses the country’s leader, Stetson-wearing President Salva Kiir Mayardit, along with countless cronies, of raking in millions in backhanders from shady business deals, funding multi-million pound mansions and private jets.

South Sudan’s armed forces have been accused by the UN of war crimes as they conducted a ‘scorched earth’ policy against civilians caught up in the country’s civil war, allowing its soldiers and allied militias to rape thousands of women and girls in lieu of wages, and torture and murder suspected opponents.

Hollywood actor and human rights campaigner George Clooney has unveiled a devastating report into the ‘corrupt kleptocracy’ of South Sudan

But the country receives a large portion of British aid – a total of £188 million last year – some of it aimed at anti-corruption measures. 

The new report comes as International Development Secretary Priti Patel announced a major shake-up in Britain’s foreign aid approach following The Mail on Sunday’s ground-breaking campaign to scrap the diktat of pledging 0.7 per cent of our national income to aid.

Ms Patel declared: ‘It rightly infuriates taxpayers when money that is intended for the world’s poorest people is stolen or wasted on inappropriate projects. I am infuriated.’

The Department For International Development (DFID) insists that not a penny of UK aid is given directly to the South Sudan government, but the UK does assist with personnel and expertise in key areas. 

DFID stresses that the majority of British money goes to helping the massive humanitarian crisis in the area and is channelled through the UN and NGOs.

The investigation accuses the country’s leader, Stetson-wearing President Salva Kiir Mayardit, along with countless cronies, of raking in millions in backhanders from shady business deals

The new report entitled War Crimes Shouldn’t Pay following a two-year investigation by The Sentry, an organisation co-founded by Clooney, makes shocking reading, but does not mention aid as being a factor in fuelling corruption. 

But critics will cite the so-called ‘fungibility factor’ – pointing out that even if aid is not misappropriated, by helping the South Sudan government with resources in the shape of staff or expertise frees up money which might have been spent on those services, so effectively increasing the spending power of a corrupt regime. 

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said the fungibility argument was ‘a very strong one’ and added: ‘As long as we are locked into a ridiculous 0.7 per cent target, this kind of profligacy will continue.’

The Sentry delved into the assets of key figures in Kiir’s regime, including social media accounts controlled by his children. 

As Clooney put it in the foreword: ‘Members of their families often live in multi-million dollar mansions outside the country, stay in five-star hotels, reap the benefits of what appears to be a system of nepotism and shady corporate deals, and drive around in luxury cars – all while much of their country’s population suffers from the consequences of a brutal civil war.’

Among the most prominent hangers-on is the stepson of the army’s chief of staff, Gen Paul Malong, accused by the UN of presiding over mass killings, rapes, and recruiting child soldiers.

Last week, shortly after The Sentry report, Lawrence Lual Malong Yor Jnr, 28, posed in a purple suit in front of his aircraft with the caption: ‘Young tycoon flying private jet.’

Among the projects funded by UK aid is the South Sudan Health Pooled Fund, at a cost of £92 million, which the DFID website describes as providing ‘a government-led effective health system’.

Then there’s Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) which spends £73 million across the region helping national governments respond to climate extremes.

A DFID spokesman said: ‘South Sudan is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and the UK aid is supporting millions of people in urgent need – providing life-saving food, clean water and shelter for those who have lost their homes during ongoing conflict.’ 

Island's £285m airport is used as go-kart track 

What a waste: A go-karter next to the runway at St Helena's airport

When a lavish new airport on the tiny island of St Helena costing £285 million of taxpayers’ money was banned from opening over safety fears, sceptics branded it DFID’s biggest white elephant.

Thankfully, islanders in the tiny British Overseas Territory have found an alternative use for the runway – as a go-kart track and fun-run venue.

They gathered for a charity event recently for an inaugural ‘Runway Dash’ and go-karting on the apron, with not a plane in sight. More than 300 people turned up for the Bank Holiday dash along the runway, which also raised £1,500 towards sending a St Helena team to the worldwide NatWest Island Games in Gotland, Sweden, next June.

How they will get there is another matter. The airport, due to open in May, was refused a safety certificate for commercial airliners because of high crosswinds at its cliff-top location.

The remote island, lying 1,150 miles off the west coast of Africa in the South Atlantic, is reachable only by sea, in a journey that takes five days from South Africa by Royal Mail Ship (RMS).

The RMS was due to go out of service, but has now been extended until next July – at a cost of at least £650,000.

DFID agreed to pay £285.5 million to ‘design, build and operate’ the airport, in a bid to improve the island’s accessibility and boost its tourism industry. That works out at around £68,000 per head for each of St Helena’s 4,200 inhabitants.

But the disastrous delay has had a knock-on effect on the island’s economy and one of the biggest hotels, the Consulate, is due to close at the end of this month.

The Mail on Sunday revealed recently how engineers are examining whether demolishing a mountain peak might prevent the cross-winds.