South Sudan marked its tenth anniversary this month as an independent country. Regrettably, though, after a decade of civil war and divided government that has left at least 400,000 people dead and displaced a third of the population, there isn’t much to celebrate.
From the beginning, China’s played an important role in South Sudan, from the creation of the country to playing a lead mediation role in the peace process to being the only major power with combat troops on the ground operating under UN command.
With the peace process now largely stalled, a lot of people are now looking to Beijing to see what China can do to get the rival parties back to the table to bring about an end to the fighting.
Wake Forest University Assistant Professor Lina Benabdallah recently moderated an invite-only workshop among leading Chinese and African scholars, activists, and former diplomats that examined what China can do to help revitalize the South Sudan peace process. Lina joins Eric & Cobus to share some of the highlights from that forum.
