01/04/2026
In a part of the world which is very close to our hearts, we are expanding our peacebuilding work on the borders of Sudan and South Sudan.
Concordis Programme Manager Jonathan Tossel talks about a place at the heart of the region.
Often overlooked in the broader story of Sudan is Abyei. A contested territory between Sudan and South Sudan. At 10,546 square kilometres, it is a tiny box between two countries, roughly the size of Lebanon. Around 200,000 people live here, mostly in the south, where development has been stalled by the absence of formal governance.
Abyei is both vital and fragile: oil-rich, and shaped by movement, trade, and resilience. It is held together by people who have spent generations navigating uncertainty.
Since 2014, Concordis has worked alongside those same people. Not to impose, but to strengthen what already exists. Together, we've helped build a hybrid infrastructure of peace and justice: communal courts, peace committees, market institutions, and local systems that resolve disputes, keep markets open, and let life move forward. As Jonathan puts it, these governance structures are "fluidly evolving like the box itself."
Despite the odds stacked against it, this is a place where we've enabled people from different sides of the conflict to trade with one another. Moving forward, we'll take the lessons of Abyei and, where communities invite us, roll them into other borderlands.
Think about the geopolitics of the area, and it looks desperate. But think about one market, and you see something else, peace generated through trade, governance, rule of law, and access to justice, even while a war goes on.
Because this is society in a microcosm.
Because in a place this contested, lasting peace isn't built from the outside. It grows from the ground up.
