South Sudan: Armed Groups and the Challenge of State Building

After a long Second Sudanese Civil War, (1983 – 2005), a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), also known as the Naivasha Agreement, was signed on 9 January 2005, by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Government of Sudan. This was followed by a referendum held from 9 to 15 January 2011 leading to the independence of South Sudan on 9 July 2011. The process of building the new state began but was violently interrupted in December 2013 when a multi-sided civil war broke out again. A peace deal signed in September 2018 formally ended the five-year civil war, followed by the creation of a unity government on 22 February. However, re(construction) of both the state and society remain anchored on fragile peace. This is because multiple ethnopolitical armed groups continue to operate in various parts of the country. This paper seeks to understand the nature and character of armed groups operating in the country; drivers that might lead to escalation(or not) of internal conflicts, further undermining the state-building project; the broader implications escalation (or not) have for the East and Horn of Africa region and the instruments of conflict management and resolution that can be promising in the case of South Sudan. The study, will employ an in depth qualitative analysis using multiple data collection methods including questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis.