US reissues South Sudan sanctions regulations

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury on Tuesday reissued the South Sudan Sanctions Regulations to make them more comprehensive and include additional interpretive guidance, definitions, general licenses, and other regulatory provisions.

The sanctions implement Executive Order (E.O.) 13664 of 3 April 2014 by Former President Barak Obama, “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Concerning South Sudan”.

Section 1(a) of E.O. 13664 outlines various activities which will entitle the US to block property and interests in the US, or in the possession or control of US persons, such as engaging in actions that threaten the peace, security, or stability of South Sudan.

The new rule, amongst other things, adds a new general license, authorizing US financial institutions to invest and reinvest blocked assets to accounts held in the same name at the same US financial institution, or within the possession or control of a US person, but funds shall not be transferred outside the US for this purpose.  It also removes the requirement that the receipt of payment for emergency medical services be specifically licensed.

Blocking Property of Certain Persons Concerning South Sudan

In April 2014, while issuing the Executive Order, said he found that the situation in and about South Sudan, which has been marked by activities that threaten the peace, security, or stability of South Sudan and the surrounding region, including widespread violence and atrocities, human rights abuses, recruitment and use of child soldiers, attacks on peacekeepers, and obstruction of humanitarian operations, poses an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.

“I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat, he said at the time.

Among other things, the order stipulated that all property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person (including any foreign branch) of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in.