War, Migration and Work examines the history of labour migration and labour relations in present day South Sudan's Baher El-Ghazal borderlands with Darfur and Kordofan (regions of present day Sudan).

This blog presents the story of Thiek, originally the Aweil area of Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, who now lives in Juba. Now one of the domino-playing casual workers and hawkers of Juba city, Thiek’s experience stringing economic life and learning together is a way to understand young men’s livelihoods in the time of coronavirus.

This update summarizes the current political holding pattern around both COVID-19 and the political transitions in Khartoum and Juba, and how these interact with established long-distance trade and migrant work systems that drive the borderland economy.

War, Migration and Work outlines how the changing economy has affected social relations in the Northern Bahr el-Ghazal borderlands, particularly between the old and the young, and men and women. The result is a fraying social system, where intra-family disputes, including violence, are on the rise, and the old order is being increasingly challenged and eroded.