The spokesman of South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has denied a report that a businessman sanctioned by the US was his adviser. It was also "not true" that Benjamin Bol Mel had business ties with the president, Ateny Wek Ateny said.
He said that Mr Mel was "not an adviser to the president and he should be treated as an individual, adding that the information used to blacklist South Sudan officials was "misleading". The US placed Mr Bel under sanctions on Thursday, along with The Gambia's ex-ruler Yahya Jammeh.
The US was "taking a strong stand against human rights abuse and corruption globally by shutting these bad actors out of the US financial system", Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement. The US embassy in South Sudan said on Friday that Mr Mel exploited his connections with Mr Kiir "to regularly engage in large scale government contracts worth millions of dollars for construction work that was not completed".