Only YOU can save Darfur

I have an essay out in the new issue of Jacobin, on the misadventures of the Save Darfur coalition, almost twenty years after its founding.

Attacked from Both Sides: Abyei’s Existential Dilemma

I have a new report out with Small Arms Survey on the situation in Abyei, a contested territory on the Sudan-South Sudan border. 13 July.

After Solidarity

I have a new piece up at the New Left Review’s Sidecar, looking at the cinema of the Dardenne brothers. You can read it here.

A Pause Not a Peace: Conflict in Jonglei and the GPAA

I have a new report out with Small Arms Survey on the situation in Jonglei, South Sudan. You can read it here.

The Deported

I have a new piece out in The Baffler, which follows one young man as he is deported from Nebraska to South Sudan, a country in which he had never set foot.

In 2015, I started writing 'expert' reports for South Sudanese immigrants facing deportation from the USA. This piece is about the violence of the immigration courts, and the struggle of reconstructing a life from the fragments contained in court documents.

Under Trump, my caseload surged. All my clients had a similar story: young men born in Khartoum or Gambella, who had come to America as children, and who were now threatened with deportation from their home to a country in which they had never set foot.

My story focuses on Duol Tut Jock, one of the smartest guys I know. At the end of a long deportation flight, at the airport in Juba, South Sudan's capital, he was ready to return 'home'. He was met with a mirror image of the racist bureaucracy he had just left in America.

The piece chronicles Jock's struggles to survive in South Sudan, and the odd resonances of life in America that he finds on the hardscrabble streets of Juba. I spent two years reporting this story, and was deeply privileged to earn Jock's friendship, and tell this story.

Learning to Look: Berger’s Lessons

I have the lead essay in the new issue of Critical Quarterly, which is devoted to John Berger. My essay, which you can read here, is about the thrill of discovering A Seventh Man in Cairo in 2002, the indifference of the UNHCR bureaucracy, modernism's belated arrival in the 1960s, and writing as an experiment in living, amongst many other things...

Gunshots in Khartoum

Gunshots in Khartoum. A short essay on the ongoing strife in Sudan. At the New Left Review’s Sidecar. 17 April.

Upper Nile Prepares to Return to War

I have a new piece out with Small Arms Survey about the situation in Upper Nile, South Sudan, you can read it here.

Making Markets: South Sudan’s War Economy in the 21st Century

I have a new piece out on South Sudan’s political economy with Tuft’s World Peace Foundation. You can read it here.

'And Everything Became War': Warrap State since the Signing of the R-ARCSS

I have a new report out with Small Arms Survey on conflict in Warrap State, South Sudan.

The Periphery Cannot Hold: Upper Nile since the Signing of the R-ARCSS

With Small Arms Survey, I have a report out on the politics of Upper Nile, in South Sudan. It is available here.

Redaction as Symptom

I have an essay out in ASAP/Journal. It’s about redaction, Weber, the war on terror, technocracy, the Mueller Report, and disenchantment. I promise it makes sense! You can read it here.

Sex abuse allegations against aid workers in South Sudan UN camp

With Sam Mednick, I have a piece out with Al Jazeera/The New Humanitarian on sexual abuse allegations against humanitarians in Malakal, South Sudan.

Why humanitarians should stop hiding behind impartiality

With Alicia Luedke, I wrote a piece for The New Humanitarian on why impartiality is a bad principle for humanitarianism. Read it here.

Hard to be a God

I have a new piece up at The Baffler: a review of Anna Della Subin's book, Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine. You can read it here.

Macron Isn’t Really Withdrawing From West Africa

I have a short piece in the new issue of Jacobin on French military policy in West Africa.

War by Another Name

I have a new essay up at The Baffler, on sanctions, past and present: War by Another Name.

Colonial Nostalgia Continues to Define France’s Relationship to Africa

I have a short essay up at Jacobin on France’s relationship to Africa, and the persistence of Françafrique.

Two new pieces on South Sudan

I published two new pieces on South Sudan this week.

In The New Humanitarian, I have an article out looking at how the state produces violence in the country.

I also published a research paper for the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies looking at the peace agreement in South Sudan: When Peace Produces War.

Meeting the General

I recorded a dispatch for BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent, fulfilling a childhood fantasy. It’s about rebel generals, Khartoum, and my marital prospects, and you can listen to it here. (My segment begins at 17:54 in the episode).