Managing Violence in Jonglei: A Test of Legitimacy and Credibility in Juba
Authors: Jok Madut Jok, Augustino Ting Mayai
Organization: The Sudd Institute
Type: Policy Briefs
Date: 09/11/2013
Publication Summary
The Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) approximates resulting deaths at 2,000 or more in 1991; 1,000 in 2009; 2,167 in 2011; and 1,516 in 2012 (HSBA, 2012). On Sunday, 20th October 2013, another violence purportedly executed by largely Murle backed rebel group struck Jonglei’s Twic East County, killing nearly 80 people and wounding several others, majority of them women and children (Sudan Tribune, Oct. 22; Gurtong Trust, Oct. 21). The attack ensued after the floods that necessitated out-migration in Twic East County, making the community more vulnerable to the rebels. After several hours of fighting, the rebels, having looted thousands of cattle, burned houses, and kidnapped women and children, retreated. Sadly, those who are stranded in the county remain at the mercy of disease, starvation, and physical insecurity, as the South Sudanese government and the UNMISS failed to effectively respond to the crisis.
Jok Madut Jok is trained in the anthropology of health and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is a fellow of Rift Valley Institute and Director of the Sudd Institute. Jok has held fellowship positions at a number of other institutions, including the United States Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He also served in the Government of South Sudan as undersecretary in the Ministry of Culture and Heritage for three years. He has also worked in aid and development and author of four books and numerous articles covering gender, sexuality and reproductive health, humanitarian aid, ethnography of political violence, gender-based violence, war and slavery, and the politics of identity in South Sudan and Sudan. His book Breaking Sudan: The Search for Peace, was published in 2017 by OneWorld.
Augustino Ting Mayai's Biography
Augustino Ting Mayai is the former Managing Director of the Sudd Institute. He is a founding Research Director of the same institution, serving in this capacity for a decade. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology, with concentrations on demography and development from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently studies how state effectiveness affects child health outcomes in South Sudan and Ethiopia. Dr. Mayai has written extensively on South Sudan’s current affairs. August is the current Chair (Statistician General) of the National Bureau of Statistics, Government of South Sudan.