\n South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has hired an American lobby group run by a former ambassador to block the creation of a court to judge war crimes in the conflict-torn nation.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to a contract between the government and the lobby group, Gainful Solutions, published online by the US Department of Justice, the $3.7 million (3.3-million euro) deal was signed on April 2.\n<\/p>\n
\n The contract states that Gainful Solutions, owned by former US ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger, was hired to \"improve relations with the United States, both politically and economically\".\n<\/p>\n
\n This includes persuading Trump's government to \"reverse sanctions and prevent further sanctions\" and to mobilise American investment in South Sudan's oil.\n<\/p>\n
\n The contract also states that the lobby group must \"delay and ultimately block establishment of the hybrid court\" envisaged in a peace deal signed in September 2018.\n<\/p>\n
\n The creation of the African Union-South Sudanese hybrid court dates back to an earlier peace agreement in 2015, a bid to gain justice for atrocities committed during a war that is now in its sixth year.\n<\/p>\n
\n Conflict erupted in December 2013 after Kiir accused his longtime rival Riek Machar of plotting a coup against him.\n<\/p>\n
\n Battles between those from Machar's Nuer community and Kiir's Dinka people were characterised by brutal violence on both sides, rape and UN warnings about \"ethnic cleansing\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The war has killed around 380,000 people, forcing more than four million South Sudanese -- almost a third of the population -- to flee their homes.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kiir and Machar are meant to re-unite in a power-sharing government in less than two weeks, under the terms of the September deal.\n<\/p>\n
\n Implementation of the peace deal is running behind however, and Machar has called for a delay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has hired an American lobby group run by a former ambassador to block the creation of a court to judge war crimes in the conflict-torn nation. According to a contract between the government and the lobby group, Gainful Solutions, published online by the US Department of Justice, the $3.7 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-41291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n