It is possible to understand the degree of spite of the international community towards Africa by looking at the treatment given to South Sudan over the last six months . In this ocean of neglect one should commend Ms Priti Patel , British International Development Secretary , who was in Juba a couple of days ago and had the frankness to describe the situation as “absolutely abhorrent and inhumane” due to the “scorched earth policy” practised by the Government . In any other part of the world , the type of violence and the absurdity of the policies (if they can be called that) that are pursued would cause , if not an uproar , at least some noise . In South Sudan , nothing . The government is not paying the salaries of the teachers , of the civil servants or even of the soldiers . The only people who still have money are the employees of the Petroleum Company NilePet who can skin the beast directly and chop off enough to eat , drink and make merry . In a burst of gallows’ humor , the local blogger Den Kiir Akok wrote a piece called “How you can tell if a bridegroom works for NilePet” . And this because lavish weddings are still organized while ordinary people are litterally starving to death a mile or two away . Violence is becoming surrealistic . In Wau , the Acting Governor explained the flight of 8,000 civilians in three days by the fact that “unknown gunmen started attacking civilians” . The “unknown gunmen” were in fact Dinka soldiers and militiamen who started to kill Belanda , Jur , Fertit and Luo civilians to take revenge on them after their comrades had fallen into an ambush outside of town . Robert Ladu , Chairman of the Land Commission , declared : “This country is in a state of decay . …..If I have to extort money from somebody and I have a “security man” , I use him to threaten you . Even when men are competing to get women , the use these “security men” to threaten each other” . Inflation has reached 900% and a gun is more useful than a bank account . International silence . Vague remarks about a “peace process” . Which “peace process” ? Those innocent souls still talking about that ghost refer to the August 17th 2015 Peace Agreement . Even  Vice President James Wani Igga concedes that “it is hobbling on one leg only“. This is the understatement of the year concerning a dead body . The last country to have joined the UN has in fact died with its boots on at age two . But does somebody still care , apart from pathetically overworked NGOs?

I now confess to be working on a book temporarily called “Phenix rising : the painful rebirth of the State of Somaliland” . This is temporary , it could change . I have been working on it off and on for the past eight-nine months and I envision another six months more before finishing (but does one ever finish books ?) a reasonably prepared manuscript