In 2012, of the ten ongoing intrastate conflicts in Africa, half had seen at least one relapse into violence after an agreement had been signed between warring parties. This statistic tells the story of stalled and failed peace processes on the continent, but it does not point to potential causes for these failures. By comparing the Sudan People’s Liberation Army’s divergent decisions during different peace processes in 1997 and 2005, this article finds that changes in the group’s grievances and cost–benefit analysis influenced its leaders’ decision to participate in or spoil a peace process.
