Foreign Policy published on 2 January 2017 an article titled "The Revenge of Salva Kiir" by Cassandra Vinograd.
The article concludes that President Salva Kiir's replacement of First Vice President Riek Machar with Taban Deng Gai amounted to an internationally sanctioned palace coup, and all but guaranteed the escalation of a war that has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced more than 3 million people from their homes.