Paper short abstract:

This paper outlines how the instrumentalization of the military labour of young pastoralist males by the state and other state-like structures, including rebel groups in South Sudan, has contributed to conflict-related sexual violence.

Paper long abstract:

Recent reports have highlighted how community-based armed groups are responsible for the lion’s share of human rights abuses in South Sudan’s ongoing wars, including conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). This has reversed the focus on the formal armed forces that characterized previous periods and ignored the large role played by community-based armed groups. However, outside of the community animal health workers operating under the auspices of a select few international NGOs and UN agencies that visit cattle camps across South Sudan to vaccinate livestock, the international humanitarian regime seems to have little interface with the membership of the country’s community embedded armed groups. This is unfortunate. Ever since the last civil war between the southern rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the northern government in Khartoum, there has been a proliferation of militia groups, such as the White Army and gelweng, or ‘cattle guard.’ This paper outlines how the instrumentalization of the military labour of young pastoralist males by the state and other state-like structures, including rebel groups in South Sudan, has contributed to CRSV as young men try to violently reinforce their autonomy and masculinity in a setting that has otherwise denied them the chance for upward mobility and marriage. It details the international humanitarian regime's engagement with these groups and proposes new ways for external actors to induce compliance with international norms preventing sexual violence in conflict.