The Small Arms Survey welcomes the announced ceasefire in Juba today after days of armed fighting, looting, violence against civilians, and displacement. We hope the apparent ceasefire holds, and that security can quickly be restored in the capital and in other areas where violence has occurred. The international community, including the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the United Nations system have critical roles to play in the days and weeks ahead to build structures to keep the peace and hold the parties to security commitments.
The Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) for Sudan and South Sudan project will continue to play a role in providing impartial, objective empirical research on armed violence and small arms issues to support the development of future evidence-based security policies in the long-term. In the past week, the HSBA released a new analysis of the relationship between the SPLM-IO and the white army that provides important context for understanding current conflict dynamics, and will launch a new report later today on the lessons for a possible South Sudan arms embargo that can be drawn from the Darfur embargo experience.
The Small Arms Survey is also engaged in two long-term projects that will provide important data and analysis for national bodies and their institutional partners and supporters, namely a national small arms assessment in South Sudan that will help establish a baseline of small arms holdings across the country, and an assessment of the existing capacities and sources of information for armed violence monitoring in the country. These initiatives are crucial at this critical moment to begin to build structures and capacities to monitor armed violence and small arms in South Sudan with a view to a prompt progress towards peace and security.
For more information, please contact:
Yodit Lemma HSBA Project Coordinator Small Arms Survey Maison de la Paix, Chemin Eugène-Rigot 2E 1202 Geneva, Switzerland yodit.lemma@smallarmssurvey.org