International Law Observer

(written by Carola Lingaas, Jeremy Sarkin and Jessica Jonsson) Following a referendum in 2011, South Sudan became independent from Sudan after decades of protracted armed conflict. The optimism for a peaceful future of the world’s newest nation state quickly evaporated when internal power struggles between the President and Vice-President arose. These political tensions reignited violence and led to the outbreak of an internal armed conflict along ethnic lines. Political actors instrumentalised ethnic identity, transforming elite rivalry into widespread violence against civilian populations. In 2015, an Agreement for the Resolution of the Crisis in South Sudan (ARCISS) was brokered with the…