SOUTH SUDAN

I’ve worked as a researcher in Sudan and (primarily) South Sudan since 2011. My Ph.D. in socio-cultural anthropology looked at struggles over territory in the Abyei area; I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley 2014. (You can read a short version of the argument in this essay).

Since then, I have worked a researcher and conflict analyst for organizations including the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, the London School of Economics and Political Science, Human Rights Watch, Small Arms Survey, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Geneva Call. I also give expert testimony in asylum and immigration cases related to South Sudan in both the UK and the USA.

(You can read an essay I wrote for the American magazine n+1 reflecting on a decade of working in South Sudan here).

Some of my recent work includes:

A Country for Old Men: The State of the Nuer White Armies of South Sudan. A Briefing Paper for Small Arms Survey on the Nuer communitarian self-defence forces of South Sudan, and the state of the government’s counterinsurgency. 15 December 2025.
Making the Enemy: The War in Western Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal States. A Situation Update for Small Arms Survey on conflict dynamics in the west of South Sudan. 8 December 2025.
Wun Weng’s Victory: The Rise and Fall of Benjamin Bol Mel. A Situation Update for Small Arms Survey on political dynamics in South Sudan. 4 December 2025.
South Sudan’s Democratic Mirage. An essay on the situation in South Sudan for the print edition of the New York Review of Books. 4 September 2025.
Fogbow operations in South Sudan and beyond raise red flags for faltering aid system. New Humanitarian. 16 June 2025. Written with Joseph Falzetta.
Sudan’s World War. An essay for New Left Review’s Sidecar looking at the first two years of the war in Sudan. 17 April 2025. It was translated into French here, Spanish here, Portuguese here, and German here.
What is Happening in South Sudan? A three-part essay for African Arguments on the situation in South Sudan. Part one looks at the dynamics of the current conflict. Part two considers whether the current conflict spells the end of the peace process, the role of the Ugandan forces, the consequences of the war in Sudan on South Sudan, and the politics of succession. Part three considers what is likely to happen next, and possible policy responses from the UN and the diplomatic community. 28 March 2025.
On The Brink: The Politics of Violence in South Sudan. A Small Arms Survey Briefing Paper on the situation in South Sudan. 28 March 2025.
The Republic of Kadamol: A Portrait of the Rapid Support Forces at War. A report for Small Arms Survey, written with Raga Makawi, on the state of the RSF’s war in Sudan. 31 January 2025.
Living with Lobong: Power, Gold, and the UPDF in Eastern Equatoria. A report for Small Arms Survey on the situation in Eastern Equatoria, South Sudan. 27 November 2024.
The kingdom, the witch, and the general. A long anthropology essay in HAU on witchcraft, the state, Evans-Pritchard, and the Azande of South Sudan. 15 November 2024.
From petrodollars to licenses: South Sudan’s post-oil political economy. An academic essay on decarbonization in South Sudan. Environment and Security. 10 August 2024.
Dominance without Legitimacy: Tong Akeen Ngor’s Reign in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State. A report on the situation in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, South Sudan. 13 June 2024.
Manhiem’s Mission: Power and Violence in Warrap State. A paper with Small Arms Survey on the politics of Warrap state, South Sudan. 30 October 2023.
Jemma’s War: Political Strife in Western Equatoria. A paper with Small Arms Survey on the ethnicization of politics in Western Equatoria, South Sudan. 17 October 2023.
Pay Day Loans and Backroom Empires: South Sudan’s Political Economy since 2018. A paper with Small Arms Survey on South Sudan’s political economy. 3 October 2023.
All Alone in the Governor’s Mansion: Sarah Cleto’s Travails in Western Bahr el Ghazal. An report on political dynamics in Western Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan, for Small Arms Survey. 4 September 2023.
The Body Count: Controlling Populations in Unity State. An report for Small Arms Survey on the political uses of populations in Unity State, South Sudan. 21 August, 2023.
Attacked from Both Sides: Abyei’s Existential Dilemma. A report for Small Arms Survey on the situation in Abyei, a contested territory on the Sudan-South Sudan border. 13 July, 2023.
A Pause not a Peace: Conflict in Jonglei and the GPAA. A report I wrote for Small Arms Survey on the situation in Jonglei, South Sudan, 16 May, 2023.
Upper Nile Prepares to Return to War. A report I wrote for Small Arms Survey on the situation in Upper Nile, South Sudan. 23 March, 2023.
'And Everything Became War': Warrap State since the Signing of the R-ARCSS. A long research report on conflict in Warrap state, South Sudan, written for Small Arms Survey. 23 December 2022.
The Periphery Cannot Hold: Upper Nile since the Signing of the R-ARCSS. A long research report on the situation in Upper Nile, South Sudan, written for Small Arms Survey. 15 November 2022.
Understanding Humanitarian Access and the Protection of Civilians in an era of Depoliticized War was published with Geneva Call in March 2021, and looks at the politics of humanitarianism in South Sudan.
The Politics of Numbers: On Security Sector Reform in South Sudan 2005-20 looked at the political economy of South Sudan, and was published in July 2020 by the London School of Economic and Political Science’s Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa. In conjunction with this paper, I wrote a short piece for the LSE blog on why peace agreements intensify the war economy in South Sudan, and gave a lecture on the paper at the LSE, which you can listen to here.
Displaced and Immiserated: The Shilluk of Upper Nile in South Sudan’s civil war, 2014–19 was written for Small Arms Survey, and published in 2019. It examines the situation of the Shilluk in South Sudan, places events in Upper Nile from 2014–19 in their historical context, and analyzes the main military tactics employed by government forces in Shilluk areas.
Displacement, Access, and Conflict in South Sudan: A Longitudinal Perspective. A research report that I wrote on the relationship between conflict and humanitarian aid for the Conflict Sensitivity Resource Facility (CSRF). 21 May, 2018.
A State of Disunity: Conflict Dynamics in Unity State, 2013-15 is a 256-page Working Paper that I wrote with Jérôme Tubiana, for Small Arms Survey, and that looks at the history of the South Sudanese Civil War in Unity State. It includes analysis of the UN's decision to arm the rebels at the outset of the conflict, the manipulation of humanitarian aid, and a blow by blow account of the war, county by county.

A list of my older reports is available below. Recently, I have been writing regular updates on the situation in South Sudan, based on extensive fieldwork, for the MAAPSS project of Small Arms Survey. From 2013-18, during South Sudan’s civil war, I wrote regular updates on the situation in the regions of Greater Upper Nile and Bahr el Ghazal for the HSBA project of Small Arms Survey.

Older reports include:

Legitimacy, Exclusion, and Power: Taban Deng Gai and the future of the South Sudan peace process, is an Issue Brief that analyses Taban Deng Gai's accession to power as First Vice-President of South Sudan, and its implication for the South Sudanese peace process (HSBA Issue Brief 25, Geneva: Small Arms Survey, 15 December 2016).

Contested Borders: Continuing Tensions over the Sudan-South Sudan Border, is a 79-page working paper updating Dividing Lines that looks at the Sudan-South Sudan border since 2013 (HSBA Working Paper No. 34, Geneva: Small Arms Survey, 13 November 2014).

Dividing lines: Grazing and conflict along the Sudan-South Sudan border, is a 65,000-word working paper that looks at the challenges posed to pastoral and nomadic groups by South Sudan's independence, and the creation of a national frontier running between the two countries (HSBA Working Paper No. 30, Geneva: Small Arms Survey, 18 July 2013).

Creating Facts on the Ground: Conflict Dynamics in Abyei, is a working paper that I wrote in the aftermath of the Sudanese army's invasion of the territory, and chronicles life in the area during the first six months of 2011 (HSBA Working Paper No. 26, Geneva: Small Arms Survey, 7 July 2011).

In 2011, I worked for Human Rights Watch as a researcher looking at prisons in Southern Sudan, and my findings were then used in Prison is not for me: Arbitrary Detention in South Sudan (New York: HRW, 21 June 2012).