The government has profiled the country’s second-largest ethnic community, splitting the counties where they are dominant into “friendly” and “hostile”.

The world’s youngest republic, and one of its poorest, is on the brink of returning to a civil war as its unelected state leaders prepare for another armed showdown.

Chinese, Indian and Malaysian firms have been partnering with the militarized state-run oil company. Transnational oil companies have been assisting the government troops by allowing them to use the companies’ air strips and other road infrastructures for their operations, according to the UN