HOLDING court beneath a neem tree in a walled compound next to a mud hut with a satellite dish, Stephen Taker Riak Dong, the acting governor of Unity State, cheerfully dismisses talk of economic collapse. Bentiu, his state’s administrative capital, is a wreck after 21 months of war. It looks as if a cyclone has scattered its shack-like dwellings. Abandoned vehicles rust in the grass. Herds of looted cattle are guarded by men with AK-47s. Unity once accounted for much of the country’s oil but now produces none. Yet Mr Taker is unperturbed. “We never depend on oilfields. If there are no dollars we don’t mind.” Peace, he says, will solve everything.
But it remains elusive. A deal signed in August by President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy-turned-rebel leader, Riek Machar, looked like the best chance yet. But then Mr Kiir, to the annoyance of foreign mediators, announced he was redrawing state boundaries and increasing their number from ten to 28, undermining the power-sharing pact. Mr Machar reacted angrily, but so far neither party has dumped the deal, signed under pressure from regional governments and America.
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Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1jQC4xa
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