“Anatomy of the Largest State Massacre in South Sudan”

Clémence Pinauad (Indiana University, Bloomington)
Center Visiting Scholar

In Juba, South Sudan, at dawn on December 13, 2013, a massacre against the Nuer, the second largest ethnic group after the Dinka, began. Dinka troops killed thousands of Nuer – between 15,000 to 20,000, according to Nuer elders. Nuer army generals reacted by mounting a rebellion against Dinka President Salva Kiir. This series of events started the country’s last decade of war.

In a lecture delivered at USC on February 22, 2024, Center Visiting Scholar Clémence Pinauad (Associate Professor of International Relations) discussed her ongoing research into the massacre, which remains an extremely sensitive topic today. She analyzed the only five public reports produced by international organizations about the massacre, exploring the methods behind them; how they present, label, define, and describe the massacre, including its planning and execution, duration, the parties involved (victims and perpetrators), and the death toll. After tracing what these reports reveal and what they lack, Professor Pinaud discussed the preliminary findings from her interviews with survivors and how these interviews are allowing her to construct a much fuller picture of the Juba massacre.

An in-person audience of around 50 people attended the talk, including many undergraduate students from classes in history (“Mass Violence and Comparative Genocide in Modern World History”) and law (“Global Justice for Mass Atrocities and Genocide.”)

Clémence Pinaud is an Associate Professor at the Department of International Studies of Indiana University, Bloomington. Trained as a historian, she first published articles on South Sudan’s military history, including on war economies, predatory behaviors, and marital practices. For the past decade, her work has focused on genocidal violence in South Sudan with references to Sudan. Her book War and Genocide in South Sudan (Cornell University Press) came out in 2021. In her spare time, she is a printmaker and the co-host of ‘The G-Word: A Podcast on Genocide’, where academics, advocates and survivors discuss why and how genocides occur. She served as a visiting scholar at the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research from December 2023 until July 2024.