A Paramilitary Revolution: The Popular Defence Forces provides a historical review of the Popular Defence Forces (PDF) from 1989 until 2006, focusing on its emergence and evolution as a national institution. The objective is to provide a historical view of an organization that has remained vaguely defined, as well as an analysis of its role and capabilities since the signing of the CPA.
The contention that the Darfurian conflict is being ‘exported’ to eastern Chad via janjawid militia has received widespread coverage. However, this is a dangerous oversimplification of the ethnic and political dynamics of the region, and most especially neglects the importance of the political crisis in Chad. Khartoum and N’Djamena have been engaged in an on-again, off-again proxy conflict using one another’s rebel movements since the Darfur conflict began in 2003, most intensively since 2005.
In recent years, the presence of arms in refugee and internally displaced person (IDP) camps in the Darfur region has led observers to describe them as militarized. Though the term is evocative, it is imprecise and does not adequately describe the complex situations in which many displaced Darfurians are living.
Beyond 'Janjaweed': Understanding the Militias of Darfur is not a comprehensive account of the scores of tribal militias that have been armed by, or cooperated with, the government. Its subject is not the human rights violations committed in the course of the counterinsurgency. Rather, it seeks to disentangle the militias and to begin to understand their motivations and grievances.
As well as reviewing Sudan’s post-2005 arms flows, Skirting the Law: Post-CPA Arms Flows to Sudan documents the scope of the escalating procurement of major weapons systems by government forces in both Northern and Southern Sudan.
Rhetoric and Reality: The Failure to Resolve the Darfur Conflict, based on interviews with mediators, government officials, humanitarian workers, and militia and rebel leaders, traces the troubled history of peace efforts after Abuja.
The Other War: Inter-Arab Conflict in Darfur examines the background to and the development of the fighting between camel-herding Abbala and cattle-herding Baggara, the main players, and some of the possible repercussions.
Also available in ARABIC.
DDR in Sudan: Too Little, Too Late? takes a critical look at the ongoing DDR programme in Sudan. It reviews the historical background of the programme as well as the key players working to implement it. It examines the programmatic design from a technical perspective and reviews progress to date as well as some of the noteworthy implementation challenges faced.
Renouncing the Rebels: Local and Regional Dimensions of Chad–Sudan Rapprochement reviews the specific circumstances of the recent Chad– Sudan rapprochement and the series of events that took place to bring this extremely divisive six-year conflict to a close. The study focuses specifically on the effects of the rapprochement on the armed opposition movements and the internal crises facing each country.
Creating Facts on the Ground: Conflict Dynamics in Abyei analyses the dynamics of the conflict in Abyei and looks at the implications of these clashes for the Abyei referendum, the demarcation of the territory’s borders, and the North–South peace process more generally. It focuses on the 2011 escalation of the conflict, setting it in the context of historical patterns of violence in the territory.