The Republic of South Sudan has been ordered to pay more than one billion dollars in an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) award ruled in favour of Qatar National Bank (QNB).

The case stems from a $700 million loan the Qatar bank gave South Sudan in 2012.

In 2015, however, the world’s youngest nation entered into another agreement with QNB on how it intended to repay the loan it had borrowed.

The loan was restructured in 2016 and supplemented in 2018 after South Sudan requested for more money to be repaid within 15 years starting in 2019.

Since then, South Sudan had defaulted on repayment of the loan, prompting the Qatar-based bank to lodge a legal complaint against the East African nation.

QNB filed the case against South Sudan and the Bank of South Sudan on October 7, 2020 (ICSID/Arb/20/40) and the tribunal was fully constituted on March 24, 2021.

The tribunal comprised Mr. Peter J. Rees (British, representing the Investor), Ms. Hélène Ruiz Fabri (French, representing the Respondents), and Mr. Ucheora Onwuamaegbu as Presiding Arbitrator. The presiding arbitrator (British/Nigerian) was appointed by the Chairman of the ICSID Administrative Council.

The final award, a document is yet to be published.