PUBLICATIONS

Despite the appearance of progress towards sustainable peace in South Sudan, the transitional security arrangements dictated by the R-ARCSS peace accord have produced the explosive potential for intensified insecurity. In adherence to the logic of the “payroll peace,” the parties to the R-ARCSS have subverted and defied the prescribed security sector reforms, leading to a renewed period of military recruitment, a hollowed-out process of force integration, and a stalled DDR program incapable of meeting combatants’ expectations. To avoid the return to major hostilities, further diplomatic engagement is needed to compel the parties to undertake these security sector reforms in good faith.

Sudan’s Darfur states have seen a renewed escalation of intercommunal violence in the months of May-July 2020, representing the conflict’s deadliest three-month period since June 2017. While this intensification of hostilities reflects a pattern of violence observed in recent years, the looming departure of the UNAMID peacekeeping mission has heightened concerns over the ongoing state of insecurity and Protection of Civilian needs in western Sudan.