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This policy brief discusses how the recently proposed environmental and social audit of the petroleum companies’ operations by the Ministry of Petroleum can be conducted to generate scientific evidence that can assist in finding a permanent solution to pollution in South Sudan’s petroleum producing areas.

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…

A year after South Sudan signed a peace agreement to end the country’s devastating civil war, a staggering one-third of its population is still displaced. Few feel safe enough to return home, and the situation remains dire. Little of the peace agreement has been implemented even as a deadline looms to form a transitional government in the next six weeks by November 12. Failure to address key issues, including relocation and disarmament of soldiers and…

This briefing paper examines changes to wedding rituals and the nature of marriages in the Bentiu Protection of Civilians site and adjacent areas of Rubkona and Bentiu towns. The authors draw from interviews and focus group discussions with displaced residents in the Bentiu PoC and with residents in the adjacent towns of Bentiu and Rubkona to highlight how the shift from a cattle-based economy to one entailing greater use of cash has affected these life…

When considering South Sudan’s prospects for 2050, perhaps the largest unknown is the potential impact of technology on the country’s economy, social relations and politics. Technology provides ever-evolving possibilities to transform the economy and the aid sector and to mitigate challenges related to climate change and demographic growth. There is little accurate data on use of technology in South Sudan. As such, this note relies on estimates of technology use and emerging regional and global…

This report explores urbanization in Bentiu and Rubkona towns in Unity State, South Sudan. Using a host community perception survey and qualitative interviews conducted in August of 2018, this case study examinesthe impact that the introduction of a Protection of Civilians site has had on urbanization, establishes the perception of the host community, and clarifies what constitutes urbanization in a South Sudanese context. The findings revealed that insecurity in the area had interrupted development in…

This briefing paper examines changes in social connectedness in the Bentiu Protection of Civilians site and surrounding town. The authors pay particular attention to the evolution of pre-displacement connections, as well as people’s strategies for establishing new bonds with neighbors, friends, and those pursuing similar livelihood activities. These issues are significant for humanitarian practitioners, decision-makers, and researchers. First, our analysis sheds light on people’s own strategies of forming, preserving, and shifting their types and sources…

The civil war that began in South Sudan in December 2013 has had dire consequences for the Shilluk of Upper Nile. Attacks by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and allied militia forces have forcibly displaced tens of thousands of people. Many of those displaced have fled to Sudan—just as they did during the second civil war (1983–2005)—where they eke out an uncertain existence. On the east bank of the White Nile, where there was…

Conversations around returns and relocations of internally displaced people and refugees in South Sudan and the future of the UN Protection of Civilians sites are often framed by clear-cut distinctions between single push and pull factors. This framing – often based on perceptions of international actors of what internally displaced people or refugees do or should think – ignores the fact that decisions to stay or to move are made based on complex motivations, in…

On 11 July 2016, at the end of four days of fighting between government and opposition forces in the South Sudanese capital, Juba, government soldiers stormed the Terrain ‘Hotel’, a residential compound that was home to South Sudanese and East African and Western expatriates. There they began a violent rampage of systematic looting, rape, gang rape, and abuse—including one killing—of the civilians sheltering in the compound. The Government of the Republic of South Sudan (GRSS)…

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