The purpose of this paper is to chronicle three conflicts in Sudan and it attempts to explain why the occur, emphasizing the role of the elites in these conflicts. The paper provides an analysis of grassroots conflicts in Sudan. The paper uses the Dinka-Mundari-Bari Conflict in Central Equatoria State in Southern Sudan as a case study to expound the argument that elites play an important role in transforming low key community disputes involving competition over access and use of natural resources, into violent political conflicts. The fragmentation of centers of political power, the divide-and-rule strategy of the Central Government, and the divisions between the elites of the two ethnic groups, who weakened local administrative structures and traditional mechanisms in conflict management and resolution, have sharpened the ethnic differences and competition over resources. The manipulation of ethnic differences by opposing groups in the various civil was in Sudan and by the elites at the centers of political power is the main cause of transforming traditional competition over natural resources into violent conflicts.

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