A State of Disunity: Conflict Dynamics in Unity State, 2013–15 (HSBA Working Paper 42)

This Working Paper analyses the continuities of the second civil war in the current conflict, as well as new social and military dynamics that have emerged since December 2013. The authors conducted joint and separate fieldwork for the paper in April–June 2014, December 2014–January 2015, and March–July 2015; in addition, they carried out telephone and online interviews with key informants throughout this period and up to June 2016. The authors’ fieldwork covered all counties of Unity state, including government- and opposition-controlled areas, with the exception of Panyijar county, which was only covered through interviews in neighbouring Leer county and elsewhere. This Working Paper builds on the authors’ multiple previous visits to Unity state in 2010–13. Supplementary interviews were conducted in 2014, 2015, and 2016 in others parts of South Sudan (in particular in Juba and Northern Bahr el Ghazal), Addis Ababa, Kampala, Nairobi, Brussels, and Paris.

This paper also presents the results of analyses of military equipment by the Small Arms Survey and Conflict Armament Research. The research teams inspected the materiel on both sides of the front line in May and June 2014.