Cattle raiding, a longstanding practice among pastoralists in South Sudan, was historically governed by cultural authorities and ritual prohibitions. However, after decades of on-and-off integration into armed forces, raiders are now heavily armed, and military-style attacks claim dozens if not hundreds of lives at a time. Beginning with the emergence of the infamous Lou Nuer “White Army” in the Bor Massacre of the early 1990s, in which Riek Machar mobilized local herders to mount a…
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This report explores the underlying factors of land disputes and boundary conflicts; by shifting away from the national legislation and policy, it looks at changing land values, patterns of decentralisation and local hybrid ssystems of land governance as explaining factors.
In 2011, southern Sudan witnessed a successful and peaceful referendum, culminating in its secession from the Republic of Sudan and the birth of an independent Republic of South Sudan on 9 July. Despite the relative peace brought by independence, true peace in South Sudan is threatened by armed groups, rebellions and local conflicts; these have led to the deaths of thousands of people since 2005. Incidences of internal violence among local communities are also on…
This paper looks at effects of climate change on vulnerable countries in Africa. The authors note that countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and South Sudan are particularly vulnerable to climate change because they are less resilient and have weak governance systems. It also underscores how climate change is increasingly becoming a security threat to most countries, which often prompts deployment of militaries to provide humanitarian assistance….