South Sudan: Watching a fragile nation

[davidbfpo]

Mayank,

Thanks for the update. South Sudan rarely gets my attention. There is a longstanding thread on South Sudan, last updated in August 2015, although the Chinese role had a mentioiin recently in the peacekeeping thread. See:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...t=8460&page=10

[mayank]

Good to know, davidbfpo. I hope I can bring back to life the South Sudan thread You will be seeing weekly posts from me with South Sudan updates. cheers.

[davidbfpo]

Via WoTR and the author makes her position quite clear:

So how can the United States work more effectively with the international community to end the current catastrophe in South Sudan? As a first step, it needs to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the peacekeeping mission as a whole, a subject that is at the heart of a report (linked below) I recently authored for the International Refugee Rights Initiative, which assesses the mission through the eyes of the civilians that it is mandated to protect. The report is based on field research I carried out with two other researchers in October of this year, in which we interviewed civilians as well as government, NGO, and UN officials (including UNMISS). We did this in response to a growing recognition that the need to develop better responses to situations of conflict in which atrocities take place has not been matched by an in-depth understanding of the needs and aspirations of those most affected, nor an adequate understanding of the political, historical and social context in which these atrocities happen.

Link:http://warontherocks.com/2015/12/can...-south-sudan/?

Link to cited report (27 pgs):http://www.refugee-rights.org/Public...eopleFINAL.pdf