| Intergovernmental Authority on Development(IGAD)is one of the eighth recognized building blocks of the AU.It was initially created to promote cooperation among its member states deal with socio-economic matters particularly to minimize the effect of drought and desertification.Presently,IGAD has transformed from an organization that merely focus on draught and disaster as it used to be during its inception in 1986 to that of dealing with regional peace and development matters.The main objectives of IGAD is strongly committed to the promotion and maintenance of peace,security and stability in the region.This commitment includes the creation of mechanisms for the prevention,management and resolution of inter-State and intra-State conflicts through discussion.The Sudan conflict started in 1956 immediately after attaining of independence.SPLM/A fought for decades to gain independence,South Sudan got its independence on July 9,2011.Immediately after the referendum,the ruling party SPLM/A had its disagreement over the transitional constitution.The political disagreement turned in to new civil war in December 2013.This study sought to assess the major root cause and aggravating factors of the conflict as well as the role and challenges of IGAD in resolving the south Sudan civil war conflict.The specific objectives were to establish the causes of the December 2013 civil war in South Sudan;to examine the role of IGAD in resolving the South Sudan conflict since 2013 and to examine the challenges that IGAD has faced in resolving the South Sudan conflict.The Split in SPLM/A leaders,power struggle,competition over resource,corruption,ethnic tension,mistrust between Kiir and Machar were driving force of the conflict.The research design used in this study was qualitative,descriptive and explorative research.A number of data collection methods were used in this study such as interview,focus group discussion and open ended questionnaire for key respondents.For the purpose of this study 52 individuals were purposely selected from target population.The Data was collected using purposive sampling and analyzed using content analysis.The study finding concludes that split in SPLM leaders,power struggle between Kiir and Machar,corruption,deep ethnic tension and tribalism,mismanagement of the economy and competition over natural resources especially oil resource are the root causes that resulted in civil war in South Sudan.The study revealed that IGAD has played a remarkable and leading role in the South Sudan mediation.Since its engagement in the negotiation process,it has played its efforts in the South Sudan peace process to culminate the armed conflict and made the basis for sustainable conflict resolution in non-violent ways.IGAD has contributed its role in resolving the South Sudan conflict in minimizing the escalation of the conflict by creating platform for dialogue and negotiations and IGAD continuously engaged and facilitated the warring parties to sign COHA,2014;ARCSS,2015;COHA,2017;establishment of HLRF and finally signing of peace agreement among warring parties on 12 September,2018 to restore peace in South Sudan and as a result transitional government of national unity(TGONU)was established.The study finding also revealed that IGAD has faced a numerous of challenges in resolving the South Sudan conflict.These include,lack commitment from the conflicting parties,repeatedly violation of cessation of hostility agreements and lack of proper support from IGAD member countries.Based on the study findings,the study recommends that build strong functional government institutions,capacity building and security reform in IGAD structure,IGAD should establish self-reliance fund mechanism and IGAD member countries,all international and regional actors should emphasize and cooperate to solve the conflict in South Sudan through IGAD-led mediations process and should refrain to bring their individual interest first.Generally,the study has comprised five chapters: Chapter one cover the introductory part that explaining the overall role of Regional Intergovernmental Organizations specifically IGAD in mediating intra-state conflicts,the principles and values of IGAD includes the promotion of good governance and protection of human rights through institutionalization of democracy and transparency,promotion of sense of community that aspire to maintain peace in the region and the peaceful resolution of disputes between and within member states;the background of the study,statement of the problem,objective of the study,research questions,significance and scope of the study,literature review,how this topic was discussed by several literatures from different scholars and authors on previous findings on the role of Intergovernmental Authority on Development in resolving of the conflict and the challenge that IGAD has faced during the conflict resolution in the south Sudan is also presented the cause of the civil war conflict in context of the South Sudanese Peace Process,theoretical frame work in this study liberalism theory is used as a school of thought within international relation discipline and also explain research methodology includes research design,population,and sample size,sampling techniques,source of data,data collection,data analysis and technic used to gather the information of the study which includes questionnaires,telephone and face to face interview and group discussion.Chapter two explains the background of first(1955-1972)and second(1983-2005)civil war conflict and also discourse how South Sudan turned in to new civil war that was broke out in2013 after south Sudan got its independence as sovereign State in 2011.The root cause of the conflict goes back to colonial legacy.They divided the South Sudan into different clans or tribes,there are around 64 clans with in south Sudan.The cause of the civil war conflict in 2013 in South Sudan due to clan based competition that is mainly Dinka and Nuer for power and Resource sharing.This has connection with historical problem that governing the south Sudan based on dividing rule into different clans.The elite in the south Sudan fight for power and resource sharing using their clans as a means of struggle,this has been mentioned as the cause of conflict.Chapter three explains the background of IGAD and its role and challenges in resolving the South Sudan civil war conflict as well as its achievement.Intergovernmental Authority on Development(IGAD)is a regional organization of East African countries with the objective to achieve peace,prosperity and regional integration among its member countries and with other regional economic communities(REC).IGAD was established in 1996,to represent the interests of states in the Eastern Africa Region.The current member states of IGAD are Djibouti,Ethiopia,Kenya,Somalia,South Sudan,Sudan and Uganda.In this regards since the new civil war broke out in south Sudan in December 2013,the IGAD has contributed prominent role in mediating the South Sudan conflict.The mediation effort is predicated under Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charters under which regional organizations can undertake activities in the area of conflict mediation and resolution.The IGAD has played important roles in signing of the two power-sharing agreements have been signed since civil war broke out.The first one is the signed Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan(ARCSS),August2015 and the second one signed in September,2018.And also IGAD instrumental in the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement(CPA)on January 9,2005.IGAD-led mediation process faces numerous internal and external challenges before and after signed the ‘Agreement on the Resolution of the conflict in the Republic of South Sudan.The main challenges that destabilize the efforts of solving the conflict before reaching to an agreement was the unwillingness of the two antagonist parties to respect what they have agreed and the parties repeatedly violated the cessation of hostilities.Furthermore the problem that IGAD encounter in the Region are extreme poverty,governance problems,corruption,Lack of political will and deeply entrenched mistrust among the parties;Lack of internal cohesion within the IGAD members in coordinating message and action.In addition,recently,IGAD members are engaged in their own internal issues;election-related disputes and violence.Chapter four,in this chapter discuss how the data was collected and reports were produced regarding with the evaluation of IGAD role and challenge in resolving the conflict in South Sudan.Similarly the cause of the conflict as well.The presentation starts by providing the response rate of the participants,categories of participants,views on each objectives and themes that have emerged from the whole data or findings.And also under this chapter presents the discussion of the findings and analysis in line with the objectives of study as well as suggesting the areas of further research.The aims of the study were discussed according to specific objective: to establish the causes of the December 2013 civil war in South Sudan,to examine the role of IGAD in resolving the South Sudan conflict and to examine the challenges that IGAD has faced in resolving the South Sudan civil war conflict.Whereas chapter five,that is the final one presents the conclusion,recommendations and the area of further study based on the findings and discussion of the study. |
