Assessing State Partition as a Conflict Management Strategy in Sub-Saharan Africa

The international community has endorsed territorial partition on several occasions in recent history as a way to separate belligerent factions and as an attempt to secure a peaceful settlement to intrastate conflicts. The underlying rationale underscoring calls for partition is that only the physical separation of warring groups can assure of a lasting peace settlement. The African continent has been particularly ravaged by intrastate conflicts over the decades. However, while the international community has sought to actively address the conflicts in Africa, it has been reluctant to sponsor or endorse partition as a mechanism for managing intrastate war. With the exceptions of Ethiopia (creation of Eritrea in 1993) and Sudan (creation of South Sudan in 2011), partition has not been a viable option for addressing the conflicts which have scourged the continent for over half a century. This chapter reviews the cases of Eritrea and South Sudan and assesses the viability of partition as a conflict management strategy.