Neighbouring Uganda (also an IGAD member), as well as forces associated with Sudanese armed opposition groups, notably the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), intervened early in support of the South Sudanese government. However, this was violated almost immediately, and fighting continues, as a monitoring and verification mission struggles to establish itself on the ground. Three envoys, Ambassador Seyoum Mesfin (Ethiopia), General Lazarus Sumbeiywo (Kenya) and General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dhabi (Sudan) shuttled between Juba, Addis Ababa, where peace talks have been held, and opposition-controlled territory and, after weeks of pressure and negotiation, obtained a cessation of hostilities. The regional organisation, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), responded quickly. Other communities are being drawn into the conflict and there is an increasing possibility of more significant foreign intervention. Armed actors, including the Nuer White Army, responded by targeting Dinka and other civilians in more than a dozen locations. Dinka elements of the Presidential Guard and other security organs engaged in systematic violence against Nuer in Juba in the early days.
Religious and community leaders, civil society and women are critical to this process and must not be excluded.Īlthough the dispute within the SPLM that led to the conflict was primarily political, ethnic targeting, communal mobilisation and spiralling violence quickly led to appalling levels of brutality against civilians, including deliberate killings inside churches and hospitals.
Governance, including SPLM and SPLA reform and communal relations, must be on the table. Resolving the conflict requires not a quick fix but sustained domestic and international commitment. The war risks tearing the country further apart and is pulling in regional states. Were it not for the intervention of Uganda and allied rebel and militia groups, the SPLA would likely not have been able to hold Juba or recapture lost territory. The SPLM and its army (SPLA) quickly split along divisions largely unaddressed from the independence war, resulting in the formation of the SPLA in Opposition. Both South Sudanese and the international community were ill-prepared to prevent or halt the conflict: the nation’s closest allies did little to mediate leadership divisions within the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM). Continuing fighting has displaced more than 1,000,000 and killed over 10,000 while a humanitarian crisis threatens many more. On 15 December 2013 the world’s newest state descended into civil war.
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