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Abstract This article offers a longitudinal study of the complex entanglements between infrastructure and sovereignty in the Horn of Africa. By analysing Ethiopia’s imperial transport corridors, the political economy of Djibouti’s Red Sea ports, and the Greater Nile Oil Pipeline between South Sudan, Khartoum, and global markets, we underline the co-production of infrastructure and sovereignty as a defining feature of regional politics in the last 150 years. In a region notorious for the redrawing of…

What people whose lives have been severely affected by armed violence actually think about peace and what peace means has been a vastly underrated area of research. The PEACEptions project addresses this research gap by conducting a series of mixed methods investigations in a number of countries. One case studies under investigation is South Sudan, a country that has seen armed violence almost throughout its existence, dating back to the Sudanese independence in 1956 and…

The paper reflects on the practice of good governance in South Sudan, focusing in particular on the forces hindering the fight against corruption in the country. Through data collection, the paper identifies the most common manifestations of corruption in South Sudan society as embezzlement, tribalism, and bribery, which thrive in the context of weak law enforcement system and economic catastrophe. Beyond its analysis, the paper provides recommendations for different stakeholders in the fight against corruption,…

ABSTRACT South Sudan has a long history of civil wars and intra-communal violence. Northern Bahr el-Ghazal (NBeG) state, including Aweil East County, similarly to other pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities, stood out in terms of intra-communal violence. However, since the second civil war (1983–2005), larger-scale local-level violence has substantially reduced and conflicts are settled in different dispute resolution forums. This paper explores factors reducing intra-communal violence in Aweil East. It demonstrates that the Sudan People’s Liberation…

Analysing South Sudan’s politics of taxation from 1899 to 2023, this article argues that the ethos of taxation in the region has been and remains primarily oriented around predatory and coercive strategies of rule. Patterns of taxation and their origin are presented by considering taxation practices in colonial, post-colonial rebel-led, and independent South Sudan, to showcase how these practices continued to be yielded as a technology of rule, of coercion, and to fulfill the interests…

This SIPRI Policy Report synthesizes the data on small arms and light weapons (SALW) diversion from the United Nations Panel of Experts reports on the five UN arms embargoes in place in sub-Saharan Africa in 2022—on the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan (Darfur region). The report provides a typology on the sources of illicit SALW in the states and regions under embargo and discusses the challenges…

This paper reflects international actors’ prevalent and persistent assumptions about South Sudan and illustrates how these have shaped international engagement for the last two decades. Drawing on the eminent “aiding the peace” evaluation report of 2010 and recent developments in South Sudan, this paper offers relevant recommendations for policymakers and practitioners to identify solutions to present dilemmas.

This analysis provides a snapshot on the diverse role of chiefs in development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding engagements in South Sudan. It highlights their prominent role in local governance, service delivery, community mobilisation, allocation of resources, etc., and thus showcasing the need for aid actors to better understand their role and interaction with aid provision. Lastly, the analysis piece provides a set of concrete recommendations for aid workers and peacebuilders in the interaction with these actors.

This report (1 of a series of 3) provides an analysis of the key actors in the Juba Peace Agreement (JPA). The negotiations for the JPA started in September 2019 in the South Sudanese capital by representatives of Sudan’s new civilian-military transitional government and a collection of Sudan’s armed and civilian opposition groups comprising the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF). The initial agreement was reached in August 2020, with the official signing taking place on October…

This Briefing Paper from the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment for Sudan and South Sudan (HSBA) project—analyses the components of Rin Tueny’s, current Lakes State Governor, ‘inclusive deterrence’ approach in Lakes state, South Sudan, and its blind spots. The report finds that, since assuming office in 2021, the governor has largely succeeded in reducing the level of crime and violence, as such the paper also discusses the possibility of this approach being institutionalized…

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