South Sudan is one of the most complex and protracted protection crises in the world, with large-scale conflict and inter-communal violence dynamics exacerbated by political fragmentation, economic instability, and climate shocks, bringing the country precipitously close to renewed civil war. The protection architecture is impacted by intensifying political violence and the absence of political commitment to resolving underlying drivers of conflict and progressing toward transitional benchmarks The Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (2026) determined that 10 million people, out of an estimated population of 12 million people, will require humanitarian assistance in 2026. Though all people affected by crisis dynamics are subject to heightened protection risks that must be addressed in a holistic and multisectoral manner, 4.9 million will require specialised protection services.
Significant and severe protection risks include: intensive armed conflict that increases risks of indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including through contamination of landmines and unexploded ordnance; widespread forced displacement; forced family separation, abductions and gender-based violence (including conflict-related sexual violence); and association of children with armed groups. Fragility has created a highly volatile environment in which localised disputes can rapidly escalate into widespread instability. These dynamics compound pre-existing risks of inter- and intra-communal violence, including abductions of children and women, cattle-raiding, and land disputes; as well as intra-communal tensions and violence between refugees, returnees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced people, and host communities.
In addition to widespread decline in overseas development assistance, including for humanitarian response, staff face significant threats to safety. South Sudan remains amongst the most dangerous countries in the world for humanitarian workers, with locally-engaged staff and locally-led organisations most at-risk. Widespread looting and destruction of schools, markets, health facilities, and critical water infrastructure, as well as assets such as vehicles, risk decimating humanitarian infrastructure and service capacity, exacerbating pre-existing food insecurity, and heightening the risk of forced displacement of people who rely on humanitarian assistance for survival.
The HCT Protection Strategy for South Sudan tangibly contributes to an improved protective environment in the country through specific coordinated actions to prevent and mitigate protection risks, achieve collective protection outcomes and advance accountability. In accordance with the IASC Policy on Protection in Humanitarian Action, the HC and HCT member organisations are all responsible for contributing to the collective HCT response to protection risks. The policy confers both collective responsibility on HCT as a coordination body and individual responsibility on each member of an HCT to implement the policy within the scope of their respective institutional mandate (whether they have a formal protection mandate or not). This collective responsibility reflects the fact that the most serious protection risks are multi-faceted; therefore, reducing them requires a multi-sectoral and system-wide effort by humanitarian, development, and peace actors. This strategy is operationalised through the establishment of an HCT Protection Crisis mechanism which will establish, implement, adapt, and monitor a detailed workplan to advance the objectives of the Strategy.