Skip to main Communities My dashboard Log in Sign up Pan-African Research Journal Africa Published April 13, 2026 | Version v1 Journal article Open Organised Famine: Conflict-Induced Food Insecurity, State Agency, and the Failure of Accountability in South Sudan and Yemen Authors/Creators Nyuon, Abraham Kuol 1 D, Ph 1 Show affiliations 1.
¹ Associate Professor of Politics, Peace, and Security; Principal, Graduate College, University of Juba, South Sudan Description This article develops organised famine as an analytical lens for understanding how famine in conflict is politically organised rather than simply environmentally triggered. Rather than treating the topic as a descriptive case note, the manuscript positions the political economy of famine: state agency, conflict-induced food insecurity, and international humanitarian law in south sudan and yemen within wider debates on African political order, state formation, and institutional design. The paper is anchored in South Sudan and Yemen, with historical comparison to Biafra and Ethiopia, and it uses the topic brief's theoretical architecture to ask three linked questions: through what specific military, administrative, and economic mechanisms did parties to the south sudan conflict deploy food insecurity as a weapon of war and what is the evidence standard required for ihl accountability? How does the political economy of humanitarian response donor interests, access negotiations, aid diversion interact with state-level decisions to sustain famine conditions? What accountability mechanisms exist under international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute for the crime of starvation, and why have they systematically failed in the South Sudan and Yemen contexts? Methodologically, the article translates the proposed design into a publication-ready strategy built around epidemiological analysis of ipc food security data 2013–2023; conflict event analysis (acled) mapped against food security deterioration; legal analysis of rome statute article 8(2)(b)(xxv) and customary ihl; interviews with humanitarian actors; comparison with biafra (1967–70) and ethiopian famines.. It argues that the central analytical payoff lies not only in better explanation of the South Sudanese or regional c Files final_69dcbb0f5ec0e1.28105586_organised-famine-conflict-induced-food-insecurity-state-agency-and-the-failure-of-accountability-in-south-sudan-and-yemen.pdf Files (815.0 kB) Name Size Download all article.html md5:d02e23ac914257cb3fdc59066e852df1 394.9 kB Download final_69dcbb0f5ec0e1.28105586_organised-famine-conflict-induced-food-insecurity-state-agency-and-the-failure-of-accountability-in-south-sudan-and-yemen.pdf md5:e6aefa7dcd93df40d6a0f1bec6c18fb9 415.5 kB Preview Download review_bundle.zip md5:27471e63b27310d772d576f818abce77 4.6 kB Preview Download Additional details Related works Is identical to Journal article: https://parj.africa/parj_hrhtj/article/view/organised-famine-conflict-induced-food-insecurity-state-agen (URL) 25 Views 23 Downloads Show more details All versions This version Views Total views 25 25 Downloads Total downloads 23 23 Data volume Total data volume 8.3 MB 8.3 MB More info on how stats are collected.... Versions External resources Indexed in OpenAIRE Communities Keywords and subjects Keywords Famine South Sudan starvation as weapon IHL accountability political economy of food Rome Statute Details DOI DOI Badge DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19551947 Markdown [](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19551947) reStructuredText .. image:: https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19551947.svg :target: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19551947 HTML <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19551947"><img src="https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19551947.svg" alt="DOI"></a> Image URL https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19551947.svg Target URL https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19551947 Resource type Journal article Publisher Zenodo Published in Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Transitional Justice in Africa, 1(1), 2026. Languages English Rights License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International The Creative Commons Attribution license allows re-distribution and re-use of a licensed work on the condition that the creator is appropriately credited. Read more Citation Export Technical metadata Created April 13, 2026 Modified April 13, 2026 Jump up About About Policies Infrastructure Principles Projects Roadmap Contact Blog Blog Support Help FAQ Developers REST API OAI-PMH Contribute GitHub Donate Funded by Powered by CERN Data Centre & InvenioRDM Status Privacy policy Cookie policy Terms of Use This site uses cookies. Find out more on how we use cookies Accept all cookies Accept only essential cookies