Lawmakers and their staff took two separate group trips to not-so-glamorous Sudan and South Sudan at the beginning of the month, according to disclosures filed in the past week.
The first group, with filings from Reps. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and two staff departed Nov. 5 for Khartoum and returned Nov. 10. The trip was sponsored by the Humpty Dumpty Institute, an organization with a self-described mission of tackling global problems to "put the pieces back together again." The Institute received funding from the CTC Group, a Sudanese company focused on agrochemicals, engineering and electronics, and from the American Global Institute, a D.C.-based nonprofit focused on trade. The president of AGI, A.I. Khalafalla, was named chair of the Humpty Dumpty Institute in September.
The filings so far show the trip to Khartoum costing a little more than $45,000 for the five travelers, the vast majority of which came from transportation expenses for the 13,000-mile round trip. The itinerary for the trip included touring CTC Group facilities as well as meeting with various Sudanese officials and business leaders.
The second group visited Juba and Bentiu, South Sudan from Nov. 8-13. Thus far, Reps. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) and Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) have filed for the trip, which was sponsored by the United Nations Foundation. The group met with the South Sudanese president, UN peacekeepers and aid workers. The filings for both members show a combined cost of just over $20,000, mostly for transportation.
House members and their staff are required to disclose privately funded trips within 15 days of their return date.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan following a 2011 referendum but has since been plagued by internal strife.