Description
Existing literature on the foundations of armed groups in South Sudan’s civil suggests that this is a clear case of state splintering, following the linear trajectory of state splintering - coup - civil war. However, contestations around December 2013 coup allegations and enduring violence before and after independence call into question the appropriateness of this understanding. This paper looks to the politics and practices of impunity to understand the origins and evolution of state splintering and civil war in South Sudan. It mobilises intersecting frameworks from memory studies and transitional justice to explore the role of impunity and accountability as both potential catalysts for, and consequences of, state splintering and conflict. This paper advances the importance of accountability and impunity in framing enduring violence at discursive and practical levels in South Sudan to understand the relationship between accountability, violence and peace in contexts where state splintering and civil war interact. It draws from memory studies to examine the role of claims and frames around the alleged coup on the subsequent evolution of South Sudan’s main armed groups. Drawing on transitional justice it further uses the politics of accountability to understand disputed histories of violent mobilisation and civil war path dependency in an environment where state splintering and war interact.
