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Following decades of civil war, a comprehensive peace agreement and the subsequent independence of South Sudan in 2011 prompted as many as two million refugees to return to the world’s youngest country. Many, however, were displaced again when internal conflict erupted in December 2013. A temporary reprieve following the signing of a peace agreement in 2015 enabled some to return to their homes, but conflict soon flared up again. A revitalised peace agreement was signed…

South Sudan’s conflict parties are supposed to form a unity government by 12 November. But key disputes between them remain unresolved. External actors should push the adversaries to make progress on these matters before entering any power-sharing arrangement – lest war erupt once more, a Crisis Group report argues. Download

The question of whether the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU) would be formed on the 12th of November 2019, as the parties have agreed, is most desired and this Policy Brief attempts to answer it. The analysis is based on prior literature, key informant interviews, and a public discussion involving the parties to the agreement.

This brief summarises key considerations concerning cross-border dynamics between South Sudanandthe Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the context of the outbreak of Ebola in North Kivu and surrounding provinces. This brief provides details about cross-border relations, population movements, political and economic dynamics, conflict and insecurity, burial practices and trusted local actors in the borderlands of South Sudan. It was developedby Naomi Pendle (London School of Economics)and Ferenc David Marko (Small Arms Survey) with support…

Members of the United Nations Security Council, under the co-chairmanship of South Africa and the United States, visited South Sudan last week on the 20th of October 2019. The visit came as the deadline for the formation of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU) looms. The Council came to acquaint itself first-hand with the progress being made towards the formation of the unity government and to nudge the parties to reach compromise on…

After decades of conflict and violence, the Great Lakes region of Africa remains one of the areas of the world most affected by forced displacement. Currently, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), Burundi and South Sudan are among the global top ten countries of origin of refugees, but every country in the region has produced refugees, often for several decades. In addition, most countries in the Great Lakes region are…

South Sudan, already one of the most difficult countries for women, has in recent years seen some of the highest levels of sexual violence in the world. Even before the civil war officially ended in September 2018, women and girls experienced high levels of gender-based violence (GBV) and had limited ways to address these crimes. Once civil war fueled by ethnic divisions engulfed the country in 2013, violence against women and girls grew even more…

Conflict in South Sudan has continued to have a devastating impact on the population despite multiple efforts to stop the fighting. Between 2017 and 2019, Saferworld held eight state-level roundtable discussions with civil society platforms on issues of peace and security. Drawing on these discussions and our own analysis, we produced a national briefing paper with a series of recommendations for how a range of different people and groups could help build peace in the…

Does UN peacekeeping reduce the number of people forcibly displaced by violence? While previous research has found that the presence and size of peacekeeping deployments can reduce violence, little is known about how peacekeepers affect other aspects of civilian protection. Using original data on sub-national events of forced displacement and the location and size of UN troop deployments this study systematically evaluates the criticized efforts of UNMISS in South Sudan, while simultaneously testing hypotheses on…

The ‘Mathiang Anyoor’ is the popular name for military recruits who were mobilized in 2011–12 and later incorporated into South Sudan’s national army, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), at the beginning of the civil war in 2013. The Mathiang Anyoor were comprised primarily of Dinka male youth from the Aweil area of Northern Bahr el Ghazal and played a critical role in keeping the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) government of President Salva Kiir…

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