The Max Planck Insti­tute is activ­ly involved in split­ting off South Sudan:

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/01/16/what-is-germany-interest-in-south-sudan.html

(excerpts)

What is Germany’s Inter­est in South Sudan?
Vladislav GULEVICH | 16.01.2014 | 00:00

The divi­sion of Sudan, which until very recent­ly was still a unit­ed coun­try, and the sep­a­ra­tion of South Sudan from it (with the cap­i­tal of Juba) is a project that has received active sup­port from Berlin. And not just polit­i­cal sup­port, but pro­grammes to cre­ate gov­ern­ment agen­cies and an admin­is­tra­tive appa­ra­tus in the new­ly estab­lished state. It has been report­ed that inter­na­tion­al lawyers from the Max Planck Insti­tute for Com­par­a­tive Pub­lic Law and Inter­na­tion­al Law in Hei­del­berg were involved in cre­at­ing the con­sti­tu­tion of South Sudan, that the Kon­rad-Ade­nauer Foun­da­tion has invit­ed Sudanese sep­a­ratists to Ger­many, that var­i­ous Ger­man min­istries have pro­vid­ed South Sudanese author­i­ties with con­sult­ing ser­vices, and that Ger­man sol­diers have been in South Sudan since 2005.

***

Berlin’s pol­i­cy regard­ing Sudan should gen­er­al­ly be in keep­ing with the poli­cies of Wash­ing­ton and Lon­don, name­ly: the par­ti­tion of a for­mer­ly unit­ed coun­try and the sep­a­ra­tion of South Sudan should not just mean the sep­a­ra­tion of a large area with con­sid­er­able strate­gic impor­tance from Khar­toum, but also a change in the own­er­ship of a sig­nif­i­cant part of Sudan’s oil resources. In this instance, the inter­ests of Ger­many, the US and Great Britain are the same – these West­ern pow­ers are eager to «pro­tect» East Africa from pen­e­tra­tion by Chi­na... Today, more than half of Sudan’s oil is being export­ed to the People’s Repub­lic of Chi­na, and Chi­nese work­ers and engi­neers in Sudan are no longer an uncom­mon sight.

***

It must be admit­ted that Khar­toum gave the West a num­ber of rea­sons to inter­vene dur­ing the con­flict, car­ry­ing out poli­cies of Ara­bi­sa­tion and Islami­sa­tion in South Sudanese provinces inhab­it­ed by Chris­tians. Wash­ing­ton, Lon­don and Berlin are now posi­tion­ing them­selves as fight­ers for the rights of the South Sudanese pop­u­la­tion. In truth, how­ev­er, pro­longed intereth­nic con­flicts are tear­ing apart many African coun­tries, and far from all of these have been award­ed the «good for­tune» of becom­ing an object of con­cern for West­ern pro­po­nents of democ­ra­cy. South Sudan was «lucky» because it has oil.

Berlin’s aware­ness of East Africa is not a new trend in Germany’s for­eign pol­i­cy, but a long-for­got­ten old one. At the end of the 19th cen­tu­ry, Ger­man East Africa includ­ed Kenya, Tan­za­nia, Rwan­da and Burun­di. Today, these coun­tries are mem­bers of the pro-West­ern East African Com­mu­ni­ty, whose zone of influ­ence is expect­ed to pull in South Sudan.

How­ev­er, Ger­man experts are not sure whether it is worth Berlin inter­fer­ing in events in this part of the world. South Sudan is quick­ly sink­ing into the abyss of an inter­trib­al war. There is no guar­an­tee that the con­flict will not spread to neigh­bour­ing coun­tries, with the whole of East Africa plung­ing into an abyss of drawn-out armed con­flicts.