Cry Havoc and Turn to Former US Diplomats

In an ideal world, the stakes in South Sudan are so high, that they should be adequate incentive for anybody to think beyond the short-term gains an individual could make out of the situation

The Dogs of War, a Fredrick Forsyth novel published in 1974, romanticizes and exposes the dubious role of the Western mercenary in overthrowing African governments.

Later made into a movie of the same title, the book brings to mind the real-life exploits of late French soldier of fortune Bob Denard in Madagascar, and more so in the Comoros Islands, where on several occasions his mercenary bands overthrew and installed governments with ease, throughout the mid-1970s to the late 80s.

While the end of the “Cold War” in 1990, saw a moral renaissance sweep over Western society, bringing to an end the career of Denard, who in 2007 died after a long stint in a French prison, Western interference in Africa is hardly dead.

The mercenary has been laundered and has today assumed a more intriguing and not-so-obvious profile.

In separate reports this week, both global news agency Reuters and Foreign Policy magazine, revealed efforts by South Sudan President Salvar Kiir to block the creation of a war crimes court, itself a key provision of the peace agreement that is supposed to end a bloody six-year war with his arch-rival Riek Machar.

To achieve this goal, Juba is counting on the expertise of Gainful Solutions, a California based lobbying firm that for $ 3.7 million, will try to secure the Donald Trump administration’s nod to the backpedaling.