The Need for Effective Leadership for Peacebuilding and Reconciliation in Divided Societies

South Sudan is the world‘s youngest nation born out of the conflict between the North and South. Once united in a common cause to form a state, however, the South Sudanese communities have entered into a renewed conflict and become divided communities. In 2013, South Sudanese leaders, Kiir and Riek, began an ethnic conflict. This paper will discuss the cause of the conflict and the role of leaders in fueling and solving the ethnic conflict and returning the nation to sustainable peace. The paper also highlights some of the main concerns in the renewed conflict in South Sudan and presents some recommendations for policy and practice that may be of interest to the current transitional government of national unity formed in February 2020. The IGAD and international community joined hands and launched a peace initiative that culminated in the round two of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCRSS) in September 2018. The paper is arranged in the following order, introduction, theoretical framework, cause of conflict, and role of the leaders in fueling the conflict, solving the ethnic conflict, South Sudan‘s return to peace. The paper ends with a conclusion and recommendations.