New HSBA Situation Update on power and violence in Warrap state, South Sudan

GENEVA—Warrap is the birthplace of President Salva Kiir and the seat of his power. The state is home to many of the leading generals and politicians in his coalition, including—most notably—Akol Koor Kuc. Akol Koor controls Warrap state, and Governor Manhiem Bol Malek wields power by remaining in Koor’s good graces.  Manhiem has used many of his predecessor’s methods and, like his predecessor, he has not been successful in quelling dissent and intercommunal clashes. This failure has heightened tensions surrounding the upcoming 2024 elections, and the real possibility of an eruption of violence.

Manhiem’s Mission: Power and Violence in Warrap State—a new Situation Update from the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment for Sudan and South Sudan (HSBA) project—discusses Manhiem Bol Malek’s governorship, and how a glut of politicians in a situation of minimal civic and political space could lead to violence in Warrap.

• Read Manhiem’s Mission: Power and Violence in Warrap State

For more, check out:

• Jemma’s War: Political Strife in Western Equatoria—a new Situation Update that examines how politics in Western Equatoria state have become highly ethnicized
• Pay Day Loans and Backroom Empires: South Sudan’s Political Economy since 2018—our new Briefing Paper on the predatory nature of the political economy in South Sudan
• 'And Everything Became War': Warrap State since the Signing of the R-ARCSS—an in-depth report on current political and conflict dynamics in Warrap state
• The Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) project page
• South Sudan outputs in our Resource Library

Other news from the Survey:

• New joint report on effective and innovative practices among European civilian firearm registries
• The Small Arms Survey and the Center for Security Studies (CENSS) joint press release on the Inception Meeting of the Ukrainian Network Group—The Risks Of Illicit Small Arms And Light Weapons Proliferation
• New HSBA Situation Update on the efforts to remove Alfred Futuyo Karaba, the governor of Western Equatoria state, South Sudan
• New HSBA Briefing Paper on South Sudan’s political economy under President Salva Kiir
• The Small Arms Survey signs project partnership with CARICOM IMPACS, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the University of the West Indies George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre (GA-CDRC)
• New HSBA Situation Update on Sarah Cleto’s precarious tenure over Western Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan