With President Salva Kiir potentially being challenged by a newly formed party and peace talks set to take place in Ethiopia, 2018 could potentially see large scale changes to the country taking place. Sputnik spoke with Thomas Mountain, Eritrea based political commentator and Journalist to get more insights into the issue.
Sputnik: Have foreign countries interfered in South Sudan’s politics?
Thomas Mountain: The thing that’s been completely ignored by the international media in South Sudan is that this war has been going on for 5 years and there are 20,000 rebel fighters who are being paid a salary of 300 dollars a month. In total this will amount to around 100 million dollars a year, so where has this money that funds the civil war come from?
There’s only once source that could come up with that cash so quickly and it’s the CIA. South Sudan has the only Chinese oil reserves in Africa, and it’s seen as desirable by the U.S government to reduce the influence of China in the continent, so this is the U.S’s motivation, as no other country in the world is benefitting from the civil war.
Sputnik: Will the upcoming peace talks in Ethiopia be effective?
Thomas Mountain: Ethiopia is in a state of emergency, with a martial law government and they are going to hold peace talks there, it makes no sense.
The only thing keeping the Ethiopian government afloat is billions of dollars of Western aid pouring into the country each year, so holding peace talks in a dictatorship where they can’t even protect their own people will not be successful.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of Thomas Mountain and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.