Rethinking access to land and violence in post-war cities: reflections from Juba, Southern Sudan

It is often assumed that violence diminishes after civil war, but in fact urban areas can turn into highly violent places with the end of open hostilities. The new forms of violence that can emerge are widespread but poorly understood and have been attributed to a range of factors including rapid urbanization, lack of economic development, continuing ethnic tensions and poverty. This paper examines urban violence in Juba, the “new” capital of Southern Sudan, through the lens of informal urban land access. The city experienced rapid population growth and an increase in land-associated violence after open hostilities with the north of Sudan ended in 2005. While the literature tends to emphasize the role of such actors as (ex-)combatants and unemployed and disenchanted urban youth in urban violence after war, the analysis presented here aims to demonstrate the complexity of the underlying causes of land violence and the opportunism of a range of civilian and military actors seeking to benefit from the fluid post-war context.