The work for the Department of Peace Operations is thus amply clear. It must privilege the substantive side in its thinking as it approaches mandate making. This would ease the work of peacekeepers and contain the thrust in recent years towards a militarisation of peacekeeping under the cover of robust peacekeeping.

One of the primary reason for recurrence of violence is the failure of peace agreements to address the real issues of conflict. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) and Addis Ababa Agreement of August 2015 have many fault lines which potentially contribute to protracted conflict.

Events of July 2016 have shattered the progress towards peace in South Sudan. The international community needs to put in more efforts to ensure that leaders of warring factions fulfill their commitments for a peaceful future for the people of South Sudan.

The Sudan of the last century was a land ridden by inter-tribal conflicts and civil wars, divided on religious lines and its politics was embroiled in a constant struggle for control over the country’s resources. Today, nothing much has changed except for the secession of South Sudan from Sudan and the discord continues across the border. After decades of civil war what is now observable is that the two Sudans are at the tipping point of an international armed conflict.