Briefing Paper

Ngok-Twic Border Conflict: A Manifestation of Botched Socioeconomic Development in South Sudan

In response to recent fighting along the border of the Abyei Special Administrative Area and Twic County, this Weekly Review calls for prompt preventive action by the leadership of South Sudan at the local, state, and national levels. It aims at raising and attempting to briefly answer several questions: What happened? Why did it happen? What should be done? And who should do it? While this analytical and prescriptive note focuses on the Ngok-Twic crisis, it tries to allude to an overarching need to address deep-rooted inter-communal tensions and conflicts to promote peace, security, and stability throughout the country. The Government of South Sudan should return to its roots and pursue the SPLM policy of peace through development, taking towns to the people in the countryside, using oil revenue to fuel agriculture as an engine of growth and building an extensive network of roads to improve trade.