Chapter published in the Routledge Handbook of the Horn of Africa.

South Sudan’s continued military governance relies on the expropriation and instrumentalisation of local resources, land and military labour. This chapter reviews recent analyses of military and security reform during the transitional peace period since 2018, and details continued systems of armed employment and government military welfare. It draws on interviews with residents in both state- and rebel-held territories, and a new wave of research on debates over the moral limits of violence in South Sudanese society, to explore this foundational military labour market and outline popular discussions of government responsibility and structural reform.