A U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C., last week granted Qatar National Bank’s motion for a $1 billion default judgment against the Republic of South Sudan and the Bank of South Sudan (BoSS), enforcing an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award for defaulted wartime loans.
In May 2024, an ICSID tribunal ordered South Sudan and its central bank to pay over US$1 billion to repay civil war-era loans made by an affiliate of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.
On July 23, 2026, the court issued the judgment, rejecting BoSS’s “vague” corruption allegations and confirming the award must be treated like a final U.S. court judgment under the ICSID Convention.
The $1.02 billion award, issued in May 2024, covers $659.8 million in unpaid principal, $432.3 million in accrued interest, and legal costs, stemming from a 2018 loan facility intended to fund imports during South Sudan’s civil war.
The tribunal ruled that South Sudan and BSS are jointly and severally liable, with South Sudan having waived sovereign immunity by agreeing to the arbitration clause, and economic turmoil failing to excuse the contractual breach.
Efforts to reach South Sudan’s finance ministry and the central bank for comment were futile.
