PREVIEW
With the country on the brink of a new war, dissident former deputy chief of staff Thomas Cirillo is planning a visit to Washington
With South Sudan on the brink of return to war, one of the main holdouts to the 2018 peace agreement is returning to the political fray.
Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka’s National Salvation Front (NAS) has hired Washington lobbyists Moran Strategies to secure allies for him on Capitol Hill, paving the way for him to visit Washington.
A trip has been made easier by President Salva Kiir’s decision to accept United States deportees after President Donald Trump threatened to revoke all visas for South Sudanese.
The contract with Moran Strategies filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act describes NAS as a ‘liberation movement’ and is signed by Cirillo. It is worth a modest US$72,000 over six months.
Led by former Democratic Congressman Jim Moran, Moran Strategies has become the go-to lobbying firm for African dissident movements. It already represents the Ambazonia Governing Council in Cameroon the National Representative Council of Eritrea and the Biafra Republic Government in Exile (AC Vol 66 No 2, Ambazonia bets on Trump & Vol 65 No 15, The influence brokers take a pay cut).
The timing of the contract, signed on 1 September, is significant. South Sudan was already teetering on the brink of a return to civil war before Kiir’s government charged First Vice-President Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon with murder, treason and crimes against humanity on 11 September. Machar has been under house arrest since March despite entreaties by the international community to release him for the sake of the peace process (Dispatches, 15/9/25, Fears of civil war grow as Kiir charges Machar & Vol 66 No 18, Salva and Riek risk a return to war).
Cirillo, whose forces still control chunks of the southern Equatorial region, refused to join the 2018 Khartoum peace agreement. He was Deputy Chief of Staff in South Sudan’s military before launching the breakaway NAS in 2017. Cirillo’s forces then joined the South Sudan Opposition Alliance in 2018.
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