Report

Societies Caught in the Conflict Trap Regional Research Findings Chad, Central African Republic, Sudan and South Sudan

Shared conflict drivers characterizes the regions of Sudan, South Sudan, Chad and CAR and this spills over the countries’ porous borders. All of these countries are registered members of the African Union. Chad and Central African Republic belong to The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa. Sudan is a member of the Arab League and has applied for membership of the East African community. South Sudan is a member of the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGAD) and has a pending application for the East African Community as well. Therefore in terms of intervention, the countries are best placed to have bilateral solutions supervised by the African Union. The other disadvantage is that the central geographical location of the states makes its cross border conflict interactions to be very extensive, excluding any other regional body from intervention, other than that with a continental reach i.e. the African Union. The African Union is the umbrella under which the states, individually and under the auspices of their regional bodies can come together to resolve the cross border conflict. The realization of stability in some countries without others will be counterproductive as the porous borders make the countries vulnerable to conflict contagion from their neighbours. The main research objectives therefore was 1.)To assess the political history of the CAR, Sudan and Chad with a specific emphasis on regional geopolitics, particularly on the inter-relations between the three countries. 2.) To identify the causes of conflicts in each country and in the region. 3.) To identify and analyze the role of all parties involved. 4.) To identify the role of civil society actors (local, provincial, national for the three countries and sub-regions) in dealing with conflict issues and to analyze their motivations and objectives. 5.) To analyse existing traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution that safeguard the survival of populations and that could be adopted in programming responses.