South Sudan and Role of Customary Authority in Conflict

The Rift Valley Institute published in 2018 a study titled "Politics, Power and Chiefship in Famine and War: A Study of the Former Northern Bahr el-Ghazal State, South Sudan" by Nicki Kindersley.

Former Northern Bahr el Ghazal State has been deeply affected by and embedded in South Sudan's civil war. This study looks at how customary authorities on South Sudan's border with southern Darfur have managed repeated wars and famines since the 1960s. It sets out chiefs' and elders' experience of negotiating with successive states, rebel movements and local militias during times of famine, flight and fighting. It concludes that chiefs and other customary authorities are a fundamental part of the political-military structures of power in South Sudan.