THE POST-CAMP STATE CIVILIAN SECURITY, INSTITUTIONAL TRANSITIONS AND THE REDESIGNATION OF UN PROTECTION SITES IN SOUTH SUDAN, 2013–2026

Background: The transition of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites into conventional internally displaced persons (IDP) camps has altered the architecture of civilian security without necessarily ending displacement or humanitarian dependence. Objective: This article examines the political meaning of that change and develops a reproducible descriptive analysis using UNMISS headcounts, UN Peacekeeping transition reports and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) mobility tracking. Methods: The principal observation is institutional rather than simply demographic: four sites had been redesignated by 2021, while Malakal remained exceptional until its February 2026 transition. It presents a transparent quantitative evidence matrix, six analytical visuals, and a mixed-methods research design that could test security outcomes with disaggregated incident and household data. Results: A January 2020 UNMISS update reported 189,762 persons across listed protection locations, of whom 117,767 (62.1%) were in Bentiu. Conclusion: IOM estimated 1,844,914 IDPs in September 2024 and 1,992,513 in the subsequent December 2024–February 2025 assessment, a difference of 147,599 (8.0%) between assessment rounds.