The report examines how individuals, communities and public authorities use protection practices during times of conflict. Using the case study of Leer and Bor, the report found some groups’ protection strategies, which are drawn from their long-standing experiences of navigating safety in a challenging context, knowledge of local landscapes, armed actors, norms of restraints and violence and the like. Finally, the report offers entry points on how humanitarian interventions can enhance realistic prospects of positive…
Entries by Naomi Pendle
Using case studies of Warrap and Jonglei state, this paper explores the influence of songs and music on narratives around famine, related shaming, and accountability for famine-related suffering. This paper finds that songs have been used to rebuke soldiers for the appropriation of assets during times of hunger, and it discusses how the rebuke can create familial shame for causing faming-related suffering. The paper provides insights on how important songs can be in recording and…
This article discusses the implication of rural radicalism on safety and security in urban settings. Using the experiences of the 2013 conflict, the article argues that the use of armed rural youth, employed to protect the government in urban areas from opposition forces, has forced them to exploit the opportunity to settling scores against urban dwellers over political and economic marginalization of rural masses. The article provides nuances on how understanding of security inequality between…
‘Protection of Civilians’ (PoC) has been a dominant focus of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions in recent decades. At the same time, ‘Protection of Civilians’ is a contested and ambiguous concept, with its practical meanings often established in the realities of implementation. The paper explores the concept of ‘protection of civilians’ and its related impact on the everyday experiences of those seeking safety. Using the case of ‘protection of civilian’s (POC) sites in South Sudan,…
Activists and scholars are seeking to end famine by promoting international legal accountability for starvation. This article deepens our understanding of the relationship between the politics of famine and law by observing the ongoing prevalence and power of legal norms and institutions during times of famine. It reveals the widespread use of hunger courts in famine-prone South Sudan and their role in legally enforcing social networks that provide for the most vulnerable. Based on analysis…
International humanitarian actors and academics continue to struggle to understand armed group conduct and how to restrain this conduct when it violates moral, legal and humanitarian norms. Armed groups that lack a visible, explicit formal hierarchical command structure, equivalent to those found in state militaries, have proved a particular puzzle. A growing body of scholarship on the strategic functions of patterns of violence and restraint has usefully moved beyond assumptions that extreme violence is indicative…
This article critiques explanations of South Sudan’s armed conflicts since 2013 that have relied on over-simplified theories of identity or monetised politics. Instead, this article explores the renegotiation of the meanings of monetary exchanges in politics and the inter-linked remaking of political identities. Warring coalitions in South Sudan have mobilised support using different notions of political communities and divergent ideas about the role of money in defining relationships. Some political communities have faced moral condemnation…
During war, geographies of economic and political power are often recast by shifting patterns of trade and population movements. This can present an opportunity for local leaders to reshape legal and moral logics to attract trade and people to areas under their control. But these shifts can also create ambiguities and tensions that extend into times of peace. Wartime Trade and the Reshaping of Power in South Sudan explores these dynamics by looking at the…
This report that discusses opportunities provided by livestock in South Sudan referring to famine, access and conflict sensitivity is based on research conducted by Naomi Pendle and the Conflict Sensitivity Resource Facility (CSRF) in 2017. The research was funded by the UK, Swiss, and Canadian Donor Missions in South Sudan.
Governments in South Sudan have long built their authority on their ability to fashion changing regimes of revenge and compensation, war and peace. Governments’ capture of these regimes has resulted in the secularisation of compensation despite the ongoing spiritual consequences of lethal violence. This article explores these issues by focusing on the western Dinka of Greater Gogrial. In recent years, they have been closely linked to the highest levels of government through familial networks and…