South Sudan
South Sudan, officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Sudan to the north, Ethiopia to the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southwest, Uganda to the south, Kenya to the southeast and to the west by the Central African Republic. South Sudan's diverse landscape includes vast plains and plateaus, dry and tropical savannahs, inland floodplains, and forested mountains. The Nile River system is the defining physical feature of the country, running south to north across its center, which is dominated by a large swamp known as the Sudd. South Sudan has an estimated population of just over 12.7 million in 2024. Juba is the capital and largest city.
Sudan was occupied by Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty and governed as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium until Sudanese independence in 1956. Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. The Second Sudanese Civil War broke out in 1983 and ended in 2005 with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed. South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011, following 98.8% support for independence in a January 2011 referendum. It is the most recent sovereign state with widespread recognition as of 2025. South Sudan descended into a civil war from 2013 to 2020, enduring rampant human rights abuses, including forced displacement, ethnic massacres, and killings of journalists by various parties. It has since been governed by a coalition formed by leaders of the former warring factions, Salva Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar. The country continues to recover from the war while experiencing ongoing and systemic ethnic violence.
The South Sudanese population is composed mostly of Nilotic peoples spanning a variety of ethnic, tribal, and linguistic groups. It is demographically among the youngest nations in the world, with roughly half its people under 18 years old. The majority of inhabitants adhere to Christianity or various traditional indigenous faiths, with a sizeable Muslim minority.
South Sudan is a member of the United Nations, African Union, East African Community, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. It is one of the least developed countries in the world, ranking the lowest in the Human Development Index and having the lowest nominal GDP per capita.
Etymology
The name Sudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa. The name derives from the Arabic , or the "Land of the Blacks". The term was first used by Arab traders, historians and geographers.History
The Nilotic people of South Sudan—the Dinka, Anyuak, Bari, Acholi, Nuer, Shilluk, Kaligi, and others—first entered South Sudan sometime before the tenth century, coinciding with the fall of medieval Nubia. From the 15th to the 19th century, tribal migrations, largely from the area of Bahr el Ghazal, brought the Anyuak, Dinka, Nuer, and Shilluk to their modern locations in Bahr El Ghazal and the Upper Nile Region, while the Acholi and Bari settled in Equatoria. The Zande, Mundu, Avukaya and Baka, who entered South Sudan in the 16th century, established the region's largest state of Equatoria Region.Of South Sudan's ethnic groups the Dinka are the largest, the Nuer the second-largest, the Zande the third-largest, and the Bari the fourth-largest. They are found in the Maridi, Yambio, and Tombura districts in the tropical rainforest belt of Western Equatoria, the Adio of Azande client in Yei, Central Equatoria, and Western Bahr el Ghazal. In the 18th century, the Avungara sib rose to power over the rest of Azande society, a domination that continued into the 20th century. British policies favouring Christian missionaries, such as the Closed District Ordinance of 1922, and geographical barriers such as the swamplands along the White Nile curtailed the spread of Islam to the south, thus allowing the southern tribes to retain much of their political and religious institutions.
British colonial policy in Sudan had a long history of emphasising the development of the Arabised north and largely ignoring the non-Arabised south, which lacked schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, and other basic infrastructure. After Sudan's first independent elections in 1958, the continued neglect of the southern region by the Khartoum government led to uprisings, revolts, and the longest civil war on the continent. People affected by the violence included the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Anyuak, Murle, Bari, Mundari, Baka, Balanda Bviri, Boya, Didinga, Jiye, Kakwa, Kaligi, Kuku, Lotuka, Nilotic, Toposa, and Zande.
The Azande/Zande have had good relations with their neighbours, namely the Moru, Mundu, Pöjulu, Avukaya, Baka, and the small groups in Bahr el Ghazal, due to the expansionist policy of their king Gbudwe, in the 18th century. In the 19th century, the Azande fought the French, the Belgians and the Mahdists to maintain their independence. Ottoman Egypt, under the rule of Khedive Ismail Pasha, first attempted to control the region in the 1870s, establishing the province of Equatoria in the southern portion. Egypt's first appointed governor was Samuel Baker, commissioned in 1869, followed by Charles George Gordon in 1874, and by Emin Pasha in 1878.
The Mahdist Revolt of the 1880s destabilised the nascent province, and Equatoria ceased to exist as an Egyptian outpost in 1889. Important settlements in Equatoria included Lado, Gondokoro, Dufile, and Wadelai. European colonial manoeuvrings in the region came to a head in 1898, when the Fashoda Incident occurred at present-day Kodok; Britain and France almost went to war over the region. Britain then treated South Sudan as a distinct entity with a different stage of development than the North. This policy was legalised in 1930 by the announcement of the Southern Policy. In 1946, without consulting Southern opinion, the British administration reversed its Southern Policy and began instead to implement a policy of uniting the North and the South.
The region has been negatively affected by two civil wars since Sudanese independence: from 1955 to 1972, the Sudanese government fought the Anyanya rebel army during the First Sudanese Civil War, followed by the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement in the Second Sudanese Civil War for over twenty years, from 1983 to 2005. As a result, the country suffered serious neglect, a lack of infrastructure development, and major destruction and displacement. More than 2.5 million people have been killed, and millions more have become refugees both within and outside the country.
South Sudan has an estimated population of 12.7 million people in 2024, but, given the lack of a census in several decades, this estimate may be inaccurate. The economy is predominantly rural and relies chiefly on subsistence farming. Around 2005, the economy began a transition from this rural dominance, and urban areas within South Sudan have seen extensive development.
Independence (2011)
Between 9 and 15 January 2011, as a consequence of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the South Sudanese independence referendum was held to determine whether South Sudan should become an independent country, separate from Sudan. Following that, 98.83% of those who took part in the referendum voted for separation or independence. On 23 January 2011, a steering committee on post-independence said the land would be named the Republic of Sudan. Other names considered were Azania, Nile Republic, Kush Republic and even Juwama, a portmanteau for Juba, Wau and Malakal, three major cities. South Sudan formally became independent from Sudan on 9 July, although certain disputes still remained, including the division of oil revenues, as 75% of all the former Sudan's oil reserves are in South Sudan. As of March 2025, the region of Abyei still remains disputed. A separate referendum was to be held in Abyei on whether they want to join Sudan or South Sudan; however an official referendum was never held. The South Kordofan conflict broke out in June 2011 between the Army of Sudan and the SPLA over the Nuba Mountains.On 9 July 2011, South Sudan became the 54th independent country in Africa and since 14 July 2011, South Sudan is the 193rd member of the United Nations. On 27 July 2011, South Sudan became the 54th country to join the African Union. In September 2011, Google Maps recognised South Sudan as an independent country, after a massive crowdsourcing mapping initiative was launched.
In 2011 it was reported that South Sudan was at war with at least seven armed groups in 9 of its 10 states, with tens of thousands displaced. The fighters accuse the government of plotting to stay in power indefinitely, not fairly representing and supporting all tribal groups while neglecting development in rural areas. The Lord's Resistance Army also operates in a wide area that includes South Sudan.
Inter-ethnic warfare in some cases predates the war of independence and is widespread. In December 2011, tribal clashes intensified between the Nuer White Army of the Lou Nuer and the Murle. The White Army warned it would wipe out the Murle and would also fight South Sudanese and UN forces sent to the area around Pibor.
In March 2012, South Sudanese forces seized the Heglig oil fields in lands claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan in the province of South Kordofan after conflict with Sudanese forces in the South Sudanese state of Unity. South Sudan withdrew on 20 March, and the Sudanese Army entered Heglig two days later.
Sudanese Civil War (2013–2020)
On 5 September 2013, an article written by analyst Duop Chak Wuol was published by the US-based South Sudan News Agency. The writer raised critical questions surrounding what he described as the rise of autocracy within the top leadership of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and warned of monumental repercussions unless the ruling elites restored the founding principles of the party. Duop also berated the ruling party, arguing that the party has replaced its founding principles with "forgotten promises and deceptions". In December 2013, a political power struggle broke out between President Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar, as the president accused Machar and ten others of attempting a coup d'état. Fighting broke out, igniting the South Sudanese Civil War. Ugandan troops were deployed to fight alongside South Sudanese government forces against the rebels. The United Nations has peacekeepers in the country as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. Numerous ceasefires were mediated by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and SPLM – in opposition and were subsequently broken. A peace agreement was signed in Ethiopia under threat of United Nations sanctions for both sides in August 2015. Machar returned to Juba in 2016 and was appointed vice-president. Following a second break-out of violence in Juba, Machar was replaced as vice-president and he fled the country as the conflict erupted again. Rebel in-fighting has become a major part of the conflict. Rivalry among Dinka factions led by the President and Malong Awan has also led to fighting. In August 2018, another power-sharing agreement came into effect.About 400,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the war, including notable atrocities such as the 2014 Bentiu massacre. Although both men have supporters from across South Sudan's ethnic divides, subsequent fighting has been communal, with rebels targeting members of Kiir's Dinka ethnic group and government soldiers attacking Nuers. More than 4 million people have been displaced, with about 1.8 million of those internally displaced, and about 2.5 million having fled to neighbouring countries, especially Uganda and Sudan.
On 20 February 2020, Salva Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar agreed to a peace deal; further, a national unity government on 22 February 2020, as Machar was sworn in as the First Vice-President of the country.
Despite the official cessation of the civil war, violence between armed militia groups at the community level has continued in the country; according to Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the Commission of Human Rights in Sudan, the level of violence "far exceeds the violence between 2013 and 2019".