Green Horizon to increase production after US Lift ban on CEO

The Green Horizon agriculture company says it is working to increase food production in South Sudan after the U-S Treasury Department lifted its sanctions on the company’s Chief Executive Officer and his company late last month.  

 Green Horizon has been implementing the government food security independence project in South Sudan since 2014.

The ban was lifted on General Israel Ziv and his assets after the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control or OFAC said sufficient measures were put in place to ensure that Ziv would no longer obstruct the peace in South Sudan according to the U-S embassy.

Ziv – a retired general in the Israel Defense Forces – and his company Global CST along with agricultural company The Green Horizon were sanctioned in 2018 for allegedly supplying weapons and ammunition to both government and opposition forces in South Sudan.

U-S embassy spokesman Jonathan Cebra says Ziv asked to be removed from OFAC’s specially designated list.

“After a lengthy and thorough process of negotiation, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is satisfied that sufficient measures are in place to ensure that Israel Ziv will no longer be able to engage in actions or policies that have the purpose or effect of expanding or extending the conflict in South Sudan, or obstructing the peace process.” Cebra told the Insider.

In deciding whether to include or remove any individual or company from the Specially Designated Nationals List, OFAC draws on information from many sources, including US government agencies, foreign governments, UN experts, and reporters, says Cebra. 

He says any individual or entity on the Specially Designated Nationals List who believes s/he/it should not be included may petition for de-listing by sending a letter to the Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) explaining his/her/its reasons. 

“OFAC will respond to any such communication and undertake an evaluation of the petition,” Cebra added.

The Treasury Department says Ziv used Green Horizon “as a cover for the sale of approximately $150 million dollars worth of weapons to the government, including rifles and grenade launchers. But General Ziv categorically denied those allegations, telling journalists in Juba Global CST never engaged in illegal arms dealing and Green Horizon was raising local communities’ livelihoods while addressing South Sudan’s hunger crisis.

In a WhatsApp interview with, Ziv says he felt insulted by the US sanctions but now feels as though a heavy weight has been lifted from his shoulders.

“I was sure that I was doing a very good deed but found myself accused of doing horrible things representing the complete opposite of my doings as if I was a war criminal.”

“This was an unbearable burden I do not even wish on my enemies,” ZIV told the Insider on WhatsApp.

But the former Israeli genral says he was also happy to discover some good virtues against the hardships during this period, especially “the trust I was given by the government of South Sudan and from my own Israeli government.”

Yoash Zohar, Managing Director of The Green Horizon, who also spoke to The Insider from Israel via WhatsApp, says the negative reaction caused by the sanctions forced the Green Horizon agriculture project to lay-off workers.

“It actually forced us to send home approximately 80 percent of our workforce amounting to hundreds of people in order to keep the project alive.” Zohar says.

“It was either this or shutting the project completely.”  

He says 2019 became a lose year for Green Horizon as the agricultural company only fought to keep the project alive with minimal activity.

With the sanctions lifted, Zohar says The Green Horizon plans to bring back the project to full productivity.

 Green Horizon relies on important technology to run its modern farms and other activities in South Sudan but with the world closing around us due to the threat posed by the Coronavirus pandemic or COVID19, Zohar says it’s going by a little bit hard.

Green Horizon has farms here in Juba, at Jebel Ladu County, Bor, Renk and in Torit. Before the U-S Treasury Department imposed sanctions on general Ziv and his assets, the project employed some 360 permanent local staff and between 350 and 12-hundred non-permanent workers each year.