Noref Report 18 - Land, Security and Peace Building in the Southern Sudan
14 December 2009
Executive Summary
Violence and insecurity threatens peacebuilding in Southern Sudan and the 2011 referendum on self-determination. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed in January 2005, but communities in the South still face violence stemming from local and regional tensions as well as national and even international conflicts. The underlying causes are a tense political setting, a highly militarised society in terms of access to weapons, and lack of institutional capacity to provide security and prevent conflict in Southern Sudan. Local conflicts affect most people on a daily basis and are a threat to stability. In addition, local insecurity hampers the implementation of two important components of the CPA: national elections in 2010 and the 2011 referendum over the future status of Southern Sudan.
The many causes of conflict in Sudan have been widely discussed, yet issues relating to land and natural resources have rarely been taken into consideration, with the exception of oil and the Nile. Connections between conflict and insecurity on the one hand, and land and natural resources issues on the other, are often complex and influenced by post-war dynamics and government polices (or lack of such).
In the short term, this report recommends that the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) should immediately, in collaboration with the UN Mission in Sudan (UNIMS), deploy adequate forces to combat local violence. In the longer term, the responsibility to protect has to be handed over to the civilian police forces. In addition, land legislation must be clarified and institutions for land administration expanded and strengthened.
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Full report available on the website of the International Peace Research Institute
, Oslo (PRIO)
