Violence and victimization in South Sudan: Lakes State in the post-CPA period (HSBA Working Paper 2)

Two years have passed since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ended the second North–South Sudanese civil war, yet no quantitative assessment of safety and security has been undertaken in South Sudan. Understanding of the role played by small arms and light weapons in insecurity is similarly limited. Measuring changes in the security of communities in South Sudan is essential to evaluating the impacts and consequences of the CPA. The Lakes State Homestead Survey on Safety and Security is the largest known household survey ever conducted in South Sudan. It reveals that while there have been real gains since the signing of the CPA, violent victimization remains perva­sive. It also shows that small arms and light weapons, which are widely kept by civilians, are the primary vector of injury and insecurity. These findings pro­vide the first baseline information against which future evaluations of human security in South Sudan can be measured.