The conflict in the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan illustrates how state policies concerning the control of land can cause local conflicts to escalate into large scale wars, which become increasingly difficult to manage or resolve.

"Nowhere has a range of case studies of Sudan been brought together in a single volume. Given the concern with the growing number and complexity of conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan there is a significant readership in academic circles and from those involved in humanitarian organisations of all kinds." Professor Peter Woodward, University of Reading "A timely contribution to an important set of debates ... tackles questions emerging from discussions about modernisation, urbanisation and globalisation from an explicitly local angle with regards to Sudan." Dr Harry Verhoeven, University of Oxford Sudan experiences one of the most severe fissures between society and territory in Africa. Not only were its international borders redrawn when South Sudan separated in 2011, but conflicts continue to erupt over access to land: territorial claims are challenged by local and international actors; borders are contested; contracts governing the privatization of resources are contentious; and the legal entitlements to agricultural land are disputed. Under these new dynamics of land grabbing and resource extraction, fundamental relationships between people and land are being disrupted: while land has become a global commodity, for millions it still serves as a crucial reference for identity-formation and constitutes their most important source of livelihood. This book seeks to disentangle the emerging relationships between people and land in Sudan. The first part focuses on the spatial impact of resource-extracting economies: foreign agricultural land acquisitions; Chinese investments in oil production; and competition between artisanal and industrial gold mining. Detailed ethnographic case studies in the second part, from Darfur, South Kordofan, Red Sea State, Kassala, Blue Nile, and Khartoum State, show how rural people experience "their" land vis- -vis the latest wave of privatization and commercialization of land rights. J rg Gertel is Professor of Economic Geography at Leipzig University; Richard Rottenburg is Chair of Anthropology at the University of Halle; Sandra Calkins is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the embattled Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, where the Government of Sudan committed "genocide by attrition" in the early 1990s and where violent conflict reignited again in 2011. A range of contributors – scholars, journalists, and activists – trace the genesis of the crisis from colonial era neglect to institutionalized insecurity, emphasizing the failure of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement to address the political and social concerns of the Nuba people. This volume is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the nuances of the contemporary crisis in the Nuba Mountains and explore its potential solutions.

This book provides the most comprehensive, balanced, and nuanced account yet published of the Darfur conflict's roots and the contemporary realities that shape the experiences of those living in the region.

South Sudan is a new country of 10.5 million people that has just emerged from conflict and still facing challenges with recovery and development. Although economic disparities, political exclusion and deprivation in the distribution of political and economic power between the northern and southern parts of then united Sudan were often tendered as the proximal causes of the conflict, at the center of the prolonged civil war was the struggle for ownership, control and use of land resources. The tool underpinning this report is the Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF), a diagnostic instrument for rapid evaluation of various aspects of land governance. LGAF was developed through a collaborative effort between the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN Habitat, International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the African Union (AU).

Since gaining independence in 1956, Sudan has endured a troubled history, including the longest civil war in African history in Southern Sudan and more recent conflicts such as the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. This book explores this history of ensuing conflict, examining why Sudan failed to sustain a successful modern post-colonial state. The book goes on to consider in detail the various attempts to end Sudan’s conflicts and initiate political and economic reconstruction, including the failure which followed the Addis Ababa agreement of 1982 and the more recent efforts following the Nivasha agreement of 2005 which ended the civil war in the south. It critically examines how reconstruction has been envisioned and the role of the various major players in the process: including donors, NGOs, ex-combatants and the central state authority. It argues that reconstruction can only be successful if it takes into account the fundamental and irreversible transformations of society engendered by war and conflict, which in the case of Sudan includes the massive rural to urban population flows experienced during the years of warfare. It compares possible future scenarios for Sudan, and considers how the obstacles to successful post-conflict reconstruction might best be overcome. Overall, this book will not only be of interest to scholars of Sudan and regional specialists, but to all social scientists interested in the dynamics of post-conflict reconstruction and state-building.

Naseem Badiey examines the local dynamics of the emerging capital city of Juba, Southern Sudan, during the historically pivotal transition period following the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Focusing on the intersections of land tenure reform and urban development, she challenges the dominant paradigm of 'post-conflict reconstruction' and re-conceptualizes state-building as a social process underpinned by negotiation. Badiey explores local resistance to reconstruction programmes, debates over the interpretation of peace settlements, and competing claims to land and resources not as problems to be solved through interventions but as negotiations of authority which are fundamental to shaping the character of the 'state'. While donors and aid agency officials anticipated clashes between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) following the CPA, they did not foresee internal divisions that impeded reconstruction in Southern Sudan, raising serious questions about the viability of an independent state. In Juba local elites interpreted the CPA in line with their economic and political interests, using claims to land, authority and political power to challenge the SPLM's agenda for urban reconstruction. In revealing how local actors strategically interpreted the framework of land rights in Southern Sudan, the book offers a basis for understanding the challenges that confront the nascent South Sudan's state-builders and their international partners in the future. NASEEM BADIEY is Assistant Professor of International Development and Humanitarian Action at California State University Monterey Bay.