PODCAST: Tom Catena is a Hero Doctor of Sudan’s Nuba Mountains Mark Leon Goldberg June 18, 2018For many years Tom Catena was the only doctor in the Nuba Mountain region of Sudan. This is an area on the border between Sudan and South Sudan. In 2011 it was the site of intense fighting between government forces and local groups aligned with the South. ...
New Research Finds a Link Between the Cost of Getting Married and the Outbreak Violent Conflict Mark Leon Goldberg August 31, 2017The high price of getting married can lead young men to take up arms.That is the conclusion of a new cutting-edge research paper that finds a correlation between what is known as "brideprice" and the outbreak of violent conflict. Some 75% of the world'...
A Famine is Never Just a Famine — It’s Political Violence By Starvation. Carol Jean Gallo March 22, 2017We are entering an age of famine. But the extreme food crises facing South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Northern Nigeria are not solely a consequence of natural disaster or climate change. Rather, people are starving to death because other people with the power ...
Here is What a Cut in U.S. Foreign Aid Could Mean for this Woman’s Family Karen Coates March 3, 2017I sat in the dim light of a Christian church with walls of mud and a roof of corrugated metal, as Alaakiir Ajok told her story. This was last September, 19 months after fighting had erupted around her home in South Sudan. Ajok, a widow, ran for the Uganda bord...
Famine Strikes South Sudan. UN Warns Three Other Countries Could be Next. One of the Biggest Catastrophes of a Generation Mark Leon Goldberg February 23, 2017Famine kills children first.Famine does not simply mean "lack of food." Rather it is a threshold against which indicators like childhood mortality are measured to determine whether the lack of food is causing people to starve to death in large numbers. Whi...
This Man Directed Refugee Policy for George H.W. Bush. He explains how the Refugee Ban is totally unprecedented. Mark Leon Goldberg January 30, 2017Princeton Lyman was a long serving US Diplomat who has become one of the leading experts on African politics and policy. He most recently served as President Obama's special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan from 2011 to 2013; but before that had an extensive...
The Crisis in South Sudan is Sending 2,000 Refugees to Uganda. Every Day Karen Coates October 12, 2016Over the past three months, an average of more than 2,000 South Sudanese a day have crossed into Uganda, seeking safety from bloodshed at home. Aid groups and government agencies are scrambling to shelter and feed everyone. The influx has not abated since figh...
Are South Sudanese Forces Deliberately Targeting Americans? Is the UN next? Mark Leon Goldberg September 7, 2016Colum Lynch has an explosive scoop in Foreign Policy reporting an incident in July in which a convoy of American diplomats was fired upon by South Sudanese government forces. The diplomats were traveling in armored cars, and when they passed the presidential p...
Can a New Peacekeeping Force Stabilize South Sudan? Mark Leon Goldberg August 12, 2016There is an important vote at the Security Council today to extend and expand the mandate of the beleaguered UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. The resolution will likely pass. But the weeks that follow will be a key test of the international community's...
