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This report (2011) looks at the political, social, economic and security dilemmas in Unity State. Download

Operation Lifeline Sudan signaled one of the first major coordinated humanitarian efforts to bring relief to suffering civilians in the midst of an active war zone. This paper recounts those efforts and the challenges faced by the humanitarian operations due to the manipulation of aid by both sides in the conflict. The question is asked whether it is actually beneficial to provide aid to suffering civilians when that aid is also serving as a tool…

In January 2011, South Sudan held a referendum to decide between unity or independence from the central government of Sudan as called for by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the country’s decades-long civil war in 2005. According to the South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC), 98.8% of the votes cast were in favor of separation. In February 2011, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir officially accepted the referendum result, as did the United Nations, the African…

This report from 2011 sets out the key immediate opportunities and challenges for the new Republic of South Sudan in managing its oil sector and using its oil wealth to bridge the gap between its informal and formal economies, consistent with South Sudan’s objective to “strengthen the management of petroleum resources in a way that contributes fully to economic prosperity and economic development.” After summarizing key background information, the report analyzes critical challenges in the…

This article (2011) investigates the prospects of a future secession in Sudan and some complicating issues, most noatbly the oil fields located along the North-South divide. Download

This article discusses some of the challenges of state- and nation building in independent South Sudan. Doing this the author argues that South Sudan will continue to share characteristics with the “old” Sudan that, if they are not addressed, bode ill for its prospects of a peaceful, democratic future. Link to publication

This paper challenges the prevailing focus on ethnic division and conflict in Southern Sudan in recent years, demonstrating that even within ethnically divisive debates over land, there are shared, transethnic levels of moral concern. These concerns centre on the commodification and monetisation of rural and kinship resources, including human life itself, epitomised in ideas of land being bought with blood, or blood being turned into money by the recent wartime economy. It argues that the…

This article (2011) explores the modernisation of security forces in the territory, focusing on challenges and opportunities for the Southern Sudan Police Service. It examines how the political ambivalence of national leaders and key international actors, linked to their goal of creating a state in the South, are shaping the new police force. Download

With the Comprehensive Peace Agreement’s mandate for Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) set to expire in July 2011, discussions are now underway between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the South Sudan DDR Commission, and international actors on how the programme can be extended and possibly retooled in the post-independence period. This Issue Brief reviews the serious limitations, as well as some of the modest successes, of the current programme. Based on field research and…

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