South Sudan Seeks Russian Investment in Energy, Mineral Sectors - Envoy

South Sudan welcomes Russian companies interested in investing in the country's energy, mineral and financial markets and has been maintaining contacts with them, South Sudanese Senior Presidential Adviser and Special Envoy, Nhial Deng Nhial, said on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — South Sudan looks forward to a renewal of economic ties with Russia, he emphasized, noting that Russian companies had conducted extensive feasibility studies of South Sudan's energy and mineral deposits prior to the country's independence in 2011, after which the sub-Saharan landlocked country plunged into civil war and a conflict with its neighbor Sudan.

"We have other [non-oil] resources that can be tapped, and we would like Russia to participate in that, especially in the mineral sector, and we have the mineral sector, and we have already had extensive contacts with leading Russian companies, notably Gazprom…We have been in touch with them, they are interested to invest in the petroleum sector," Nhial said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

In January, South Sudan’s former Foreign Minister Benjamin Barnaba said that Russian diplomatic efforts helped bring the two countries back on track toward reconciliation.

Nhial, who served as South Sudan's foreign minister from independence until 2013, added that the country's government had been discussing economic cooperation with the Russian Foreign Ministry's former special representative to Africa and the Middle East Mikhail Margelov prior to his replacement with Mikhail Bogdanov in late 2014. Contacts have been made with Bogdanov in early 2016, according to Nhial.

Oil-rich South Sudan seceded from what is now the Republic of Sudan in 2011, leading to repeated hostilities between the two countries. Russia has been active in mediating in the following conflict between the two sides, hosting a round of peace talks in September.