ConflictBarometer_2016

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
lic debate about racism in general at South African schools,
with several institutions joining the protest.
Besides education issues, township residents rallied in several
instances against poor basic municipal services, such as
soiled water and electricity blackouts. For example, in Zandspruit,
a township of Johannesburg, residents protested from
March 15 to 17, blocking the road, burning tires, and destroying
agas station. mag, len
SOUTH AFRICA (XENOPHOBES)
SOUTH SUDAN (INTER-COMMUNAL VIOLENCE)
Intensity: 5 | Change: | Start: 2011
Conflict parties: Murle vs. Dinka vs. Nuer; Fertig;
Shilluk; Karo sections et al., Toposa vs.
Didinga, Gak Dinka vs. Manuer Dinka
Conflict items: subnational predominance, resources
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1994
Conflict parties:
Conflict items:
immigrants vs. xenophobes
system/ideology
The violent crisis over local labor market shares and cultural
hegemony between xenophobes and immigrants continued.
As in previous years, the difficult job situation and social inequality
in the whole country, which had asevere impact on
the living conditions of the black South African population,
led to several violent clashes between South Africans and various
groups ofimmigrants, especially foreign-born shop owners.
Particularly affected by anti-immigrant violence was the
densely populated and poor industrial belt around Johannesburg
and the capital Pretoria, Gauteng province.
In January, a Nigerian man arrested for drug possession died
while in police custody in a police vehicle in the city of Kempton
Park, Gauteng. Around 500 protesters, Nigerian nationals
among them, surrounded the car with the dead body, accusing
the police of having killed the man. The police responded
with firing stun grenades and rubber bullets, injuring at least
three people.
Throughout the year, several incidents involving violence
against foreign shop owners were reported, three of them
in Gauteng. In March, an Ethiopian national was shot inside
a shop close to Johannesburg, Gauteng. In Katlehong, also
Gauteng, four people were injured, one killed and several
shops looted and destroyed in a fight over expired meat. Earlier
that month, all fourteen Nigerians living in the small town
of Wolseley, Western Cape province, had fled the area after a
crowd of residents forced them out of their homes and looted
their shops, accusing them of murder and drug dealing. On
June 22, a political protest following the appointment ofalocal
African National Congress candidate in Tshwane [→ South
Africa (opposition)] escalated into a wave of shop lootings.
Several towns in Gauteng, including the Ga-Rankuwa and Atteridgeville,
were affected, about 20 buses and several trucks
were torched, and foreign-owned shops andashopping complex
were looted. 54 people were arrested on charges of public
violence and theft.
In July, residents set vehicles and foreign-owned shops alight
in a protest over housing in Mbekweni area, Western Cape.
In two different incidents in June, gunmen attacked two
buses with Zimbabwean nationals, robbing their valuables. In
September, two men attempted to abduct an Arabic-looking
man on busy Pine Street, Durban. However, a group of bypassers
prevented this by assaulting the kidnappers. mag
The war between various ethnic groups over subnational predominance,
arable land, and cattle continued. This year, intercommunal
violence mostly comprised ambushes, cattle raids,
looting, and large-scale abductions, often targeting children,
between rival ethnic groups and sub-groups, most frequently
involving the Dinka and Murle tribes. Furthermore, the conflict
gained a transnational dimension when Murle tribesmen,
allegedly supported by Dinka members, attacked Nuer people
on Ethiopian territory.
Inter-communal violence increasingly occurred in the context
of the Nuer-affiliated Sudan People Liberation Movement-in-
Opposition's (SPLM/A-IO), fight against the SPLM/A-led government
under Dinka leader and President Salva Kiir, leading
to more army and armed movement involvement than in previous
years [→South Sudan (SPLM/A-in-Opposition)]. After
renewed heavy clashes had erupted between the armed opposition
of the SPLM/A-IO and the government in Juba in July,
fighting largely shifted to Equatoria, which had been comparatively
unaffected by conflict-related action in the previous
years. Reportedly both SPLM/A and its opposition faction
targeted civilians based on ethnic lines in the region, where
Dinka and the numerous other ethnic groups had historically
fought each other over land, cattle, and other resources. Reportedly
Dinka soldiers targeted Kakwa, a Karo sub-tribe, and
Pojulu for allegedly supporting Machar and killed Pojulu people
while sparing those who could speak Dinka.
On January 1, a clash between rival tribes in Jur River County,
Wau State, left two people dead and several displaced. In
early January, acattle raid by Dinka Bor members in Labanak
Paya, Jubek State, onacamp of the Bari tribe, left five people
dead, dozens injured and thousands displaced. On January
17, a clash between Murle and unknown tribesmen in Pator,
Jonglei State, allegedly left one person dead and four injured,
while 250 to 300 heads of cattle were reported missing.
On January 28, alleged Murle killed 24 in a cattle raid in
Latjoor State, while two children were abducted and 800
heads of cattle stolen. In afight between members of the
Shilluk and the Dinka tribes at a UN base in Malakal, Upper
Nile State, 18 people died and at least 90 were injured on
February 17. Fighting continued when members of the Dinka
involved in the clash attacked Nuer. In subsequent clashes,
Dinka youths were reportedly supported by SPLM/A soldiers.
Tents were burned down and dozens fled their homes. On
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