Checkpoint economy: the political economy of checkpoints in South Sudan, ten years after independence (original) (raw)

THE GLOBAL CHECKPOINT ECONOMY: supply chains as a new frontline of conflict financing?

DIIS Working Paper Series #15, 2019

A new DIIS study presents an overview of the role of transit taxes levied at checkpoints in financing ongoing conflicts around the world. Compiling evidence from six different contexts, this DIIS Working Paper finds that in each of the conflicts, checkpoints form a key source of revenue for parties to the conflict. Whether in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Syria, the Central African Republic or Iraq, taxing passage is a consistent feature of how conflict actors sustain themselves. Understanding how conflict is financed is important, because many external interventions try to stem conflict by cutting off sources of funding to parties in a conflict. In the past, research on conflict financing has disproportionately focused on so-called ‘conflict minerals’. This has led to new regulations and interventions targeting mining. ‘The purpose of compiling the available evidence is to call attention to other sources of conflict financing which are just as important’, Peer Schouten, author of the study, explains. ‘And the preliminary evidence certainly suggests that the “global checkpoint economy” is at least as pervasive as conflict minerals.’ Checkpoints and transit taxes are particularly important for armed actors that don’t control mineral-rich areas and have no outside support.

South Sudan: A Political Economy Analysis

Written for the Norwegian Government's major policy review with Øystein Rolandsen of PRIO, this report sets out a survey of the state of South Sudan, examining its military-political structures, government and popular economies, regional conflicts and rebel movements. The study involved extensive research in South Sudan and northern Uganda in early 2017.

The South Sudan Con fl ict : Continental an d International Implications

2016

The South Sudan confl ict which started in December 2013 is now entering its second year with continental and international implications far beyond comprehension in terms of human tragedy in one of the world’s newest nations. Continued fi ghting between the government troops and the rebel forces has displaced more than 1 000 000 and killed over 10 0000 people while a humanitarian crisis threatens many more South Sudanese and their neighbouring states. The war risks tearing the country apart as well as creating a potential humanitarian crisis of epic proportions on neighbouring states. Hence, this article examines the continental and international implications of the current South Sudanese confl ict which has roped in the African Union spearheaded by the Inter-Governmental Organization and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. It argues that the heart of this post-independence confl ict in South Sudan is the personal rivalry between President Salva Kiir and his former Vice Presi...

Sudan at Cross roads – Regime Change & Building Democratic Institutions RL Vol XIII No 412 MMXIX.pdf

As Africa’s largest landmass inhabited by forty million people of a kaleidoscope of shades and colours, Sudan is one of Africa’s impoverished, but well-endowed nations. The AU Technical Mission on Darfur was headed by the author. Its research questions focused on the following. What brought about Sudan’s conflicts? What are the impact of these conflicts and ripple effects in the Horn of Africa? What are the strategic options for enhancing human security and prospects for democratic governance and resolving ethnic conflicts? The atrocities that citizens and IDPs refer to in Darfur and elsewhere are all too evident to demand any major explanation and too terrifying and menacing to believe. According to the IDPs leaders (Sheikhs), women, girls, NGOs, and human rights groups interviewed by the research team and existing reports, murder, rape, beating, and bigotry are common in Sudan by heavily armed militias. In some of the accounts Government soldiers and the police are implicated in participation and often abetting this horror. In the following, is presented the various human right abuses in Sudan. These include rape as a savage instrument of humiliation, rise of vigilante gangs, death of non-combatants, and systematic destruction of villages, IDP camps were turned into IDP prisons and armed robbery, abductions, and delivering relief aid become dangerous and break up within the SLM and JEM. On 13 Nov 2018, a report was released by the IMF on the state of consumer subsidies in Sudan to protect low-income families, was expensive, ineffective and counterproductive. The protests against al-Bashir removing subsidies sparked massive nation-wide protests. The string of protests, beginning in 2018, show no signs of tapering off and may serve as a more serious challenge to the rule of al-Bashir than ever before. In highlighting the uniqueness of this round of protests, some observers have pointed to these protests’ longevity as well as a number of other factors such as apparent rifts within al-Bashir’s own political party and the unity between opposition groups against the ruling regime. The will of the Sudanese youth is unmasking the dogma of a violent regime. Revolution has begun in Sudan. It is over for the current Sudanese regime; there is no going back. One would think that the idea of removing a long time authoritarian leader, especially one who has had an arrest warrant issued by the ICC, would be a welcome development from the perspective of many western countries. However, there does not appear to be any real support for the protests from western powers apart from statements that express some apprehensions about the way with which the protests are being dealt with. To avoid the Libya, Syria and Yemen scenario, Mr. Bashir should build democratic institutions that can be explained with reference to two institutional factors political organisations and political rules. The central hypothesis is that the relative strength of political agencies determines the rules of the political game that are installed. Democratisation requires a plural set of political organisations, which promote and protect rules of peaceful political participation and competition. Key words: Sudan, human rights, Darfur, IMF, popular protest, Bashir, Media, Arab Spring, political organisations and political rules

Factors Affecting Policy Approach on IDPS and Migration Crises in Juba South Sudan Published

International Journal of Multidisciplinary and Current Research, 2019

control the migratory trends in Juba, using a qualitative and case study approach; the study identified the migratory factors that affect post-conflict reconstruction policies. It thus asked and addressed three questions: 1) what were the migratory factors identified by the first round respondents and how does it relate to the realities in Juba and South Sudan generally? 2) What is the nature of the United Nation’s programs and policies during reconstruction period, and how has it impacted the migratory trends in bringing about sustainable peace in South Sudan? 3) How significant has these programs and policy processes been in post-conflict reconstruction in Juba? To achieve this, two (2) locations in Juba were selected for the study and various policy actors as well as the United Nations agencies, funds and programmes in the study area constituted the population for the study. Twelve (12) United Nations agencies, funds, and programmes randomly selected and interviewed one hundred and forty community members and two case studies also analyzed in each of these locations in Juba making a total of fifty six (56) respondents. Data was collected using wellstructured questionnaires and interview using the Delphi techniques through the use of Google docs for two rounds questionnaire administration. Questions were related to the socio-economic characteristics of respondents on the causes of Migration and IDPs Crises in Juba-South Sudan. Findings identified series of the factors that precipitates migration but singled out the lack of coordination between the international and local actors as stakeholders in the application of the relevant policies to address the effects of migrations over the years. By contrast, the development of policies has been inappropriately applied by way of partly exclusion of the local actors in the policy formulation processes and application. Hence the need to encourage more corporate arrangements coordination, policies frameworks to support the coordination structure to enhance post-conflict reconstruction efforts to minimize migratory trends.