South Sudan: What Next for South Sudan?

The crisis which broke out in South Sudan in December 2013 was the worst since independence. In the five weeks before a ceasefire was signed on Jan. 23, nearly 690,000 people were displaced and thousands killed.

So what's next for South Sudan? What impact will the conflict have on South Sudan going forwards? What are the root causes of the violence? What is the role of the international community, and will bringing perpetrators of abuses to justice do more harm than good?

Following is an edited transcript of an online discussion held on Jan. 22, the day before a ceasefire was signed between the government and rebel representatives.

The debate is part of Thomson Reuters Foundation's reporting on the crisis in South Sudan. Thomson Reuters Foundation journalists Katy Migiro, East Africa correspondent, and Alex Whiting, London correspondent, organised the debate, and the panellists were:

David Deng - research director, South Sudan Law Society (Juba)

Sara Pantuliano - head of Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute (London)

Joshua Craze - researcher, Small Arms Survey (Geneva)

Don Bosco Malish - programme officer, Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (Juba)

Heather Pagano - regional information officer, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Juba)

Challiss McDonough - spokeswoman, World Food Programme (Juba)

Q (From Katy Migiro): Challiss, the U.N. says that only just over 40 percent of the internally displaced have received any aid. Why are you having such a problem responding to this humanitarian crisis?

MCDONOUGH: Partly because of the extreme levels of insecurity -- it's hard to distribute aid in the midst of active fighting. It can be dangerous not only for the aid workers but for the civilians we're trying to help.

But the displacement in this crisis is also pretty unusual -- normally people run away from an area where there's fighting, and you can assist them where they arrive, but in this case people have sought shelter in UN compounds in the midst of active conflict zones, and those compounds are not designed as IDP camps.