Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration in South Sudan: The limits of conventional peace and security templates

This report explores the DDR programme in South Sudan; in particular how it has evolved, what the major challenges have been to its implementation and, finally, what can realistically be expected from renewed efforts to disarm and reintegrate fighters vis-à-vis security imperatives on the ground. DDR has been identified as a main priority in the Republic of South Sudan and a prerequisite to pave the way for future stability and development. The basic argument presented here is that standard DDR programmes - or rather the conventional peace and security templates that characterise them - are not fit for purpose in a context like South Sudan. This is so because achieving security in the country goes beyond DDR and is not related to the 'rightsizing' of the South Sudanese Armed Forces/ Sudan People's Liberation Army nor to the 'reintegration' of combatants. Rather, as the report argues, it will depend on a serious engagement with the following twofold task: firstly, to comprehend and eventually change the basic structures and mechanisms of armed mobilisation prevalent in South Sudan and, secondly, to understand and adapt security sector reform to a political environment that is constructed in terms of potential for violence and threats of destabilisation.