Date: Wednesday 22 January
Time: 13.00-14.00
Where: S1, Alison Richard Building, Sidgwick Site, 7 West Rd, CB3 9DT
On December 15, 2013, fighting broke out within the South Sudanese Presidential Guards unit, prompting President Salva Kiir to accuse his former deputy, Riek Machar, of an attempted coup. Although Machar denied the charge, he quickly declared himself the leader of a rebellion, composed of defected soldiers from the army and allied tribal militia, with the aim of ousting Kiir from power. Numbers are hard to come by, but it is estimated the one-month old conflict has killed over 10,000 people and displaced over 300,000 civilians. It has brought the two-year old nation to the brink of civil war, possibly already well beyond.
This roundtable discussion give a snapshot of the conflict and its consequences to date, before exploring its underlying causes and implications.
Dr Sharath Srinivasan (CGHR/POLIS, University of Cambridge), Peter Ajak (PhD Student, POLIS) and Dr Laura James (Former Economic Adviser to African Union High-Level Implementation Panel for Sudan).