The current challenges in South Sudan require drastic reforms beyond the call for President Salva Kiir to resign. South Sudan needs politicians, men and women, whose motivation is the wellbeing of the people of South Sudan and not self enrichment. 

Heads of State from East and the Horn of Africa have endorsed a proposal to deploy a rapid protection force to South Sudan, which would later serve under the UN mission (UNMISS) with an enhanced mandate. But this is unlikely to solve the crisis in the world’s newest nation. UNMISS has serious weaknesses and, perhaps more importantly, the South Sudanese conflict is largely economic.

President Salva Kiir eventually appended his signature on 26 August to the peace deal with his rival Riek Machar. The agreement is set to be debated and ratified by parliament. Will it bring an end to the complex crisis that has plagued Africa’s youngest nation for nearly two years?

The South Sudan state is dysfunctional. Public institutions are weak, while the nation’s oil wealth benefits regional power brokers and local elites. Scavenging foreign profiteers and NGO types retained by the government have dug deep to protect their interests. Peace deals are not enough to heal the troubled young nation.

Last week the constitutional deadline of the presidential term in Africa’s youngest nation South Sudan expired, but current President Kiir and his parliament extended their mandates through a constitutional amendment. Is it a prudent move in a country embroiled in a civil war or an excuse to hold on to power?

A coalition of 76 civil society organisations from within and outside Africa has written to the African Union seeking immediate publication of the report of the AU Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan (AUCISS), whose findings they believe will make a critical contribution to the the peace process in the war-torn nation.

Civil society groups across the Great Lakes & Horn of Africa regions have called on governments to acknowledge the outcry of South Sudanese people and engage in serious peace negotiations instead of stalling tactics while searching for military victory.

Africa’s newest nation has been engulfed in violent conflict for a year now. It is sad that the freedom struggle that lasted so long has not translated into quality life for the majority of the citizens. The root causes of this must be addressed – and they have everything to do with failed leadership.

The proposed law, an almost exact replica of Sudan’s security laws, would grant the already dreaded agency entirely unfettered power to spy on private communications, to search and seize property without a warrant, to arrest and detain innocent people without explanation, and to use physical force – in other words torture.

The South Sudan peace talks which are currently taking place in Addis Ababa under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) are inadequate and badly suited to the task at hand. Citizens are completely absent from the process, warring groups feel no pressure to halt the violence and huge sums of money are being wasted. The peace process should be taken back home.

Global attention to the crisis that broke out in South Sudan nearly a year ago has almost entirely disappeared. But difficult negotiations are ongoing, despite periodic outbreaks of fighting. To find lasting solutions, the stakeholders need to appreciate the complex realities leading up to the crisis

The African Union-appointed commission set up to investigate the current conflict in South Sudan has been a virtual paper tiger to date. The commission needs to provide unflinching recommendations aimed at stabilizing the country’s social, political, economic and military situations.

The feeling of hope after the independence of South Sudan was short-lived for many South Sudanese and has now been replaced by cynicism and suspicion. In this light, a new agreement to end war in South Sudan gives only little hope that it will set a different path for the Africa’s youngest nation.

South Sudan could have a transitional phase following the current crisis. Elections are set for next year, but they could be postponed for three years of transition. Various proposals on the leadership structure during the interim period have been made and are presented here

The mobile revolution. Geopolitical power shifts. A radically altered global economy. The world is changing, and so is the way that people fight for their rights. In order to be effective, Amnesty International’s (AI) International Secretariat needs to change how we work. That’s why we have opened a Regional Office in Kenya. And why we need your campaigning expertise with us on the ground.

President Kiir has several times in the past pledged not to take South Sudan back to war. He needs to demonstrate this now by doing everything in is power to end the current bloody crisis

Through the years, the discourse about South Sudan has merely focused on power, wealth and armed conflict. The issues of identity, citizenship, unity and constructing the social fabric of the country have never been part of the conversation

Looking ahead beyond an end to the current violence, these academics propose measures that would ensure long-term stability of the world’s newest nation

South Sudan is facing a profound crisis of governance within the ruling party and its military wing, the SPLA. Without addressing serious nation-building issues, democratizing the ruling party and opening up the political space, any temporary solutions will only defer the problems to a later date

What makes African politics particularly fragile is that African politicians inherited weak superstructures from their former colonial masters and failed to dismantle such structures as their political egos sought to step in to the former master’s shoes