Lessons Learned from South Sudan Protection of Civilian Sites 2013–2016

14 - Lessons Learned from South Sudan Protection of Civilian Sites
Background
Since Sudan’s independence in 1956, Southern
Sudanese have suffered from three devastating civil wars
and widespread political and local violence. 2 The third
civil war of December 2013 broke out less than three
years after the country gained independence from Sudan
in July 2011 and less than nine years after the signing of
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January
2005, which ended the second civil war between the
Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A)
and the Sudanese government (National Congress Party
or NCP). Even in the intervening peace years, low-level
interethnic conflicts and political insurgencies continued
in many rural areas of South Sudan, resulting in
thousands of deaths, abductions and loss of livelihoods.
Political divides within the SPLM leadership prompted
the outbreak of violence in the military barracks in Juba
on 15 December 2013. The violence quickly escalated
with the ethno-political targeting by government security
forces in Juba of Nuer peoples, the ethnic group of
the former vice president and current commander of
the opposition, Riek Machar. 3 In consequence, tens of
thousands of civilians fled to the two UNMISS bases in
Juba for protection, prompting the creation of the PoC
sites. When violence reached the state capitals of Bor,
Bentiu and Malakal, civilians, government officials, and
even military personnel fled to the UNMISS bases in
these capitals for protection.
On 18 December, Riek Machar announced he was heading
a new rebel movement, the SPLM/A-in-Opposition or
SPLM/A-IO, against President Salva Kiir, from the Dinka
ethnic group, and his government. On the same day,
Peter Gadet, the SPLA 8th Division commander, defected
and overtook a military base in Bor, the capital of Jonglei
State. Following his capture of the town, a large number
of Dinka civilians were forced to flee and seek refuge in
the UNMISS base. The following day, on 19 December,
in retaliation for the killings of Nuer civilians in Juba,
Nuer youth attacked the UNMISS base in Akobo County,
Jonglei, and killed at least 20 Dinka civilians and military
personnel who had fled there for protection. 4
The conflict quickly spread to other parts of the country,
commonly starting between soldiers in the military
barracks and along ethnic lines. On 19 December,
violence broke out in the SPLA 4th Division headquarters
in Rubkona in Bentiu, the capital of Unity State. By 21
December, the Governor of Unity State, Joseph Monytuil,
had retreated and the opposition fighters declared
themselves in control of the city. Meanwhile, in Malakal,
the state headquarters of Upper Nile, units loyal to
the opposition took the city on 24 December, driving
thousands of people, including the Governor of Upper
Nile State, to the UNMISS camp for safety. The same
day, the government retook Bor, and thousands of Dinka
civilians subsequently left the PoC site.
• Southern Corps of the Sudanese
army mutinied in Torit.
• First civil war.
• Sudan’s independence.
• Rebels came together under
the name Anyanya.
• Addis Ababa peace accord
signed and Southern Regional
Government established.
• Mutinies by Anyanya
veterans, culminating
in the establishment
of Anyanya II units in
Ethiopia.
• Low intensity warfare.
• Mutinies spread,
Southern Regional
Government abolished,
the Sudan People’s
Liberation Movement/
Army (SPLM/SPLA)
formed in Ethiopia in
July.
• 1983–2005
Second civil war.
• 1983–1987
Leadership split and
ensuing factional
conflict between
Anyanya-2 and SPLA.
Both parties carried
out atrocities against
civilians, including Nuer
communities along the
Upper Nile / Ethiopian
border.
1955 1956 1960 1963 1965 1970 1972 1975
1980 1983 1985