GIN) – A former U.S. banker has secured a huge tract of arable land in southern Sudan in what has been called Africa’s largest post-colonial private land deal.
 
Investor Phillipe Heilberg called the property bordering the Nile “a ripe opportunity for investment and development.” Its size is nearly twice the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
 
Heilberg’s company leased 400,000 acres from Gabriel Matip, son of Gen. Paulino Matip Nhial of the Sudan People's Liberation Army whose last visit to the U.S. included medical treatment in Minnesota.