December 24, 2014

Oil slicks way for peace

editor:	Neelo Aysha Scholz

China is taking South Sudan’s civil war personally. In a major shift from its stated policy of non- interference in African conflicts, it’s sending 700 combat troops to the new country early 2015. Africa’s biggest trade partner has until now kept a distance from its political and military disputes.

But heavily invested in South Sudan, China is taking a proactive stance in diplomatic efforts to pacify the country where civil war has slashed oil production by a third. According to Richard Poplack, a journalist studying the effect of the Asian giant on Africa, the latter has “poured billions and billions in resources” into South Sudan. The violence there was sparked last December when president Salva Kiir accused his sacked Deputy, Riek Machar of attempting a coup on his government. The fighting in Juba poured into large swathes of the country, claiming thousands of lives and pushing the country to the brink of famine. Oil producing regions have suffered some of the worst violence.

Though China has been one of the largest suppliers of peacekeeping troops, they were engineers, medical, transport and security personnel. Since 2000, it has gradually increased its peacekeeping troops twentyfold and this infantry battalion will be equipped with drones, armoured carriers, antitank missiles, mortars and other weapons.

The Guardian reports that in a 2011 report, the NGO Saferworld found that despite its stated neutrality, the Asian power has been gradually using diplomatic means to push for the resolution of certain conflicts and is becoming a major supplier of conventional arms to African states.

“It’s a precedent and any precedent is a dangerous precedent.” says Richard Poplak.