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Research paper
The Lord’s Resistance Army in Sudan: A history and overview
This study examines the military history of the LRA in Sudan, the prospects for ending the conflict and the main challenges facing the peace talks.
Research paper
Fettered Self-determination: South Sudan’s Narrowed Path to Secession
The interpretation of self-determination as a vote for secession shaped the state that South Sudan has become since the 2011 referendum. Self-determination, this paper argues, is a democratic political process in which citizens determine their preferred form of statehood and…
Research paper
A Hard Homecoming: Lessons Learned from the Reception Center Process in Northern Uganda: An Independent Study
This independent report has been commissioned by USAID and UNICEF to examine assumptions and evidence about the needs and experiences of children and adults who have been forced to serve under the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and have subsequently escaped,…
Research paper
‘A situation of security pluralism’ along South Sudan’s borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo
This article compares two cases of securitization along South Sudan’s border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By comparing how a security concern – the presence of the Lord’s Resistance Army – was interpreted and responded to, the article…
Research paper
South Sudan’s Civil War Will Not End with a Peace Deal
In early 2017, the government of South Sudan declared that parts of the country had been hit by severe famine. This famine was another sign of the many ways in which a disastrous war was killing people. South Sudan had…
Background report
Southern Sudan at Odds with Itself: Dynamics of Conflict and Predicaments of Peace
This report aims to clarify reasons for increased intra-south violence in South Sudan. By reflecting on how people living and working in Southern Sudan experienced events since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), this report looks at ways in which intra-southern…
Research paper
Deals and Dealings: Inconclusive Peace and Treacherous Trade along the South Sudan-Uganda Border
Since Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed, its border with Uganda has become a hub of activity. Contrasting developments on the Ugandan side of the border with those on the South Sudanese side, the paper draws on empirical fieldwork…
Briefing
Expanding the Reach of Justice and Accountability in South Sudan
This policy brief explores options to consider in expanding the reach of justice and accountability processes as part of any post-conflict transition in South Sudan. The brief is structured in three sections. After a short introduction, the first section examines…
Briefing
The Legacy of Kokora in South Sudan
This briefing paper presents a historical case study on Kokora, a word associated with the decentralization policy enacted in southern Sudan in 1983. The policy divided the semi-autonomous Southern Region in Sudan, into three smaller administrative regions. While the events…
Research paper
Health Sector Recovery in Early Post-Conflict Environments: Experience from Southern Sudan
Health sector recovery in post-conflict settings presents an opportunity for reform: analysis of policy processes can provide useful lessons. The case of southern Sudan is assessed through interviews, literature review, and by drawing on experiences of former technical advisers to…
Background report
Livelihoods, Access to Services and Perceptions of Governance: An Analysis of Pibor County, South Sudan from the Perspective of Displaced People
Based on qualitative interviews in Juba with displaced people from Pibor County in 2013, this article examined internal state-building processes, international engagement with the state, and livelihoods and response in rural Pibor County. The authors focus in particular on how…
Book chapter
South Sudan-Sudan Cross-Border Relations. In: State Building and Development in South Sudan
As a contribution to international, regional and national processes aimed at informing state building in South Sudan, the African Research and Resource Forum in partnership with University of Juba, organised a two-day international dialogue called “State Building and Development in…
Working paper
Civil Wars and State Formation: Violence and the Politics of Legitimacy in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and South Sudan
Civil wars destroy existing political orders, shape new ones, and play crucial roles in the dynamics of state formation. This working paper is based on a 2-year research project reflecting on the social construction of order and legitimacy during and…
Background report
Livelihoods, Access to Services and Perceptions of Governance: An Analysis of Uror and Nyirol Counties, South Sudan
This report is one of a series based on qualitative fieldwork conducted by the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC) South Sudan team in Uror and Nyirol Counties, Jonglei State, South Sudan in January and February 2013 (prior to the outbreak…
Background report
The Politics of Humanitarianism: Perspectives from South Sudan
South Sudan has for decades been a crucible of experimentation in the field of humanitarianism in situations of conflict. Humanitarian operations have been critical in saving lives, providing essential medical care, documenting the plight of South Sudan’s people, and connecting…
Research paper
The International Criminal Court and the Invention of Traditional Justice in Northern Uganda
This discusses different forms of justice, as the campaign for regionally and specific traditional justice has done nothing to promote national integration. The commitment of those who assiduously promote it for selfless reasons is worthy of a better cause.
Research paper
Being Normal: Stigmatization of Lord’s Resistance Army Returnees as ‘Moral Experience’ in Post-war Northern Uganda
Focusing instead on the ‘stigmatizers’, this article theorizes stigmatization as part of the ‘moral experience’ of regulating post-war social repair.
Book chapter
Colonial Encounters in Acholiland and Oxford: The Anthropology of Frank Girling and Okot p’Bitek
The work of Frank Girling on the Acholi of Uganda and the prose works of Okot p’Bitek about Acholi customs should be recognised as seminal. Written at the time when the classic texts were being published about other Ugandan groups,…
Research paper
Dirty Things: Spiritual Pollution and Life after the Lord’s Resistance Army
Drawing on insights gleaned from ethnographic fieldwork over the last decade, we focus here on targeted research from January to August 2014 with former LRA individuals who were part of a bigger study of clients at an ex-combatant reception centre.…
Research paper
Silencing Distressed Children in the Context of War in Northern Uganda: An Analysis of its Dynamics and its Health Consequences
Children in northern Uganda who are the focus of this article were born and raised in the context of war. The research presented here is based on a one-year ethnographic study (2004–2005) with children aged 9–16 years.
Research paper
Training Theories of Mind in Post-conflict Northern Uganda
In this article, I explore how NGOs train local Acholi counselors to work with psychiatric notions of trauma and practice counseling with local clients.
Background report
CSOs/CBOs and Faith-Based Organizations-Led Peace and Reconciliation Efforts
This policy brief explores the state and role of civil society and community-based organisations and faith-based organisations in peace and reconciliation efforts in South Sudan following the outbreak of violent conflict that began in December 2013. A key reason for…
Background report
Trajectories of International Engagement with State and Local Actors: Evidence from South Sudan
The paper traces shifts in international engagement and the implications of these shifts for understanding the trends in service provision specifically, and recovery and development more generally, in South Sudan. This analysis is intended to offer some direction for the…
Background report
Complexities of Service Delivery and State-Building
The SLRC South Sudan programme has been working since 2012 to identify and understand the realities of livelihoods, access to basic services, and perceptions of governance in post-independence South Sudan. This briefing paper summarises findings from the publications of SLRC…
Background report
Livelihoods and Conflict in South Sudan
The SLRC South Sudan programme has been working since 2012 to identify and understand the realities of livelihoods, access to basic services, and perceptions of governance in post-independence South Sudan. This briefing paper summarises findings from the publications of SLRC…
Background report
Statebuilding and Legitimacy: Experiences of South Sudan
Using South Sudan as a case, this report interrogates people’s perceptions of the state, focusing on sources of legitimacy that are not primarily related to service delivery. It covers the period from the onset of civil war in 1983 to…
Research paper
On Exposure, Vulnerability and Violence: Spatial Distribution of Risk Factors for Climate Change and Violent Conflict across Kenya and Uganda
Recent studies discuss linkages between climate change and violent conflict, especially for East Africa, and focusing on whether climate change increases risk of violent conflict. However, little is known about where a climate-conflict link is most likely to be found.…
Research paper
Population Displacement and Sustainable Development: The Significance of Environmental Sustainability in Refugee–Host Relationships in the Congo−Brazzaville Crises
The Republic of Congo experienced repeated outbreaks of armed conflicts between militiamen affiliated to three main political factions, which affected the socioeconomic fabrics of the Congolese society until late 2000. This paper examines the socioeconomic and environmental impact of interactions…
Policy document
Climate Change and Conflicts in South Sudan
This study investigates the extent of climate change, variability and the incidents of climate disaster events and links with conflicts in South Sudan using meteorological data, records of conflicts, floods and droughts. The authors found that temperatures have increased and…
Research paper
Reintegration of Amnestied LRA Ex-Combatants and Survivors’ Resistance Acts in Acholiland, Northern Uganda
This article examines the social dynamics among survivors and amnestied Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) ex-combatants living together in Acholiland, asking how and if Acholi survivors have forgiven Acholi LRA returnees, forgotten past violence and moved on, as stated in northern…
Research paper
What Happened to Children Who Returned from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda?
This article draws on research carried out in 2004–06 and from 2012 to 2018, and compares findings with other publications on reintegration in the region. It argues that implementing best-practice guidelines for relocating displaced children with their immediate relatives had…
Research paper
Justice at the Margins: Witches, Poisoners, and Social Accountability in Northern Uganda
Recent responses to people alleged to be ‘witches’ or ‘poisoners’ among the Madi of northern Uganda are compared with those of the 1980s. From 2006, a democratic system for dealing with suspects was introduced, whereby those receiving the highest number…
Book chapter
Life Beyond the Bubbles: Cognitive Dissonance and Humanitarian Impunity in Northern Uganda
International humanitarians work within bubbles. Humanitarians rely on rules and norms—from laws or principles, to religious and biomedical values, to best practice and ethical guidelines. The rules and norms create apparently coherent and predictable spaces.
Research paper
Rejection and Resilience: Returning from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda
This article focuses on young people who returned from the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda, mostly as children, over ten years ago. Supporting normative models of resilience has exacerbated deprivation of the most vulnerable.
Research paper
Reluctant Representatives of the State: Teachers’ Perceptions of Experienced Violence (DR Congo)
My qualitative research in South-Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo suggests that teachers link experienced violence to their role as state representatives. Three elements evoke the militia’s distrust: literacy, cell phones, and mobility. Reportedly, militias assume that teachers use these elements…
Background report
Competing Networks and Political Order in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Literature Review on the Logics of Public Authority and International Intervention
This CRP synthesis paper presents an overview of shifting dominant narratives on the Congo wars and the major findings of a systematic qualitative literature search on conflict and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in relation to the…
