South Sudan: Peace and Security Challenges

Since its independence in 2011, the South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit (Salva Kiir) has been striving for reconciliation with various ethnic, tribal, armed groups and communities in the country. As part of his efforts for the country's political stability, he has pardoned several leaders who even led rebellions against the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) – the political organisation that brought independence for the country. In the process, the factional leaders also got incorporated into the Kiir government or his armed forces. Unfortunately, these rebel leaders brought their own armed forces with them in the political and military compositions of the country, which in turn, posed a great challenge to the government in the form of downsizing, reforming and “right-sizing” the increasingly bloated political and defense sector. In 2013, President Kiir made major changes in his government to downsize and address governance concerns because of perceived threat to his government and pressure from International donors to crack down corruption. He replaced two state governors and dismissed two senior cabinet ministers on corruption charges and conducted a major cabinet reshuffle, with removal of Vice President Riek Machar and his entire group of ministers. The President also dismissed the ruling party secretary-general Pagan Amum, who had been publicly critical of the dismissals and Rebecca Garang, the widow of the late SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) leader, John Garang. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.336698