South Sudan is engulfed in a mutually-reinforcing war system. This situation involves more than the two principal players – the government, led by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, and the opposition. Several drivers of conflict have emerged, some new and others accentuated by the conflict – badly managed decentralization, corruption, marginalization, ethnic rivalries and exclusionary politics, and unaddressed local grievances that have fed militias and insurgencies countrywide. These are likely to become entrenched if conflict mitigation and prevention mechanisms are not established and integrated into the Agreement for the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan. This report looks beyond the agreement to issues that will need to be tackled to conduct peacemaking in a broader and more sustainable manner.
