South Sudan — map and facts

About South Sudan

South Sudan is the world's youngest country, having gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011 following a referendum in which nearly 99 percent of voters chose separation. The capital is Juba, which sits on the White Nile in the south of the country and serves as the political and commercial hub of this landlocked nation. South Sudan has a population of approximately 11 million people, though figures are uncertain due to ongoing instability. The country is home to more than 60 ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Dinka, Nuer, and Shilluk. Despite holding some of the largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa, South Sudan remains one of the poorest and most fragile states in the world. A devastating civil war that erupted in December 2013 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those of former Vice President Riek Machar caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and displaced millions. A peace agreement signed in 2018 brought a fragile ceasefire, though violence and humanitarian crises persist across much of the country.

Geography and Landscape

South Sudan is a landlocked country in East-Central Africa, bordered by Sudan to the north, Ethiopia to the east, Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south, and the Central African Republic to the west. The terrain is dominated by the central floodplain of the White Nile and its tributaries, including the Sobat and Bahr el Ghazal rivers. The vast Sudd wetland, one of the largest freshwater ecosystems in the world, spreads across the central region and forms a labyrinthine swamp covering tens of thousands of square kilometres. To the south and east, the land rises into highland areas and savanna, while the Imatong Mountains near the Ugandan border include Kinyeti, the country's highest peak at 3,187 metres. The climate is tropical, with a pronounced wet season from April to October that floods the Sudd and renders many roads impassable. The dry season brings intense heat and dust. The country's ecosystems support significant wildlife including elephants, giraffes, and large migratory herds of antelope.

History

The territory now comprising South Sudan was inhabited for millennia by Nilotic and Sudanic peoples. Arab slave traders penetrated the region in the nineteenth century, and the area was brought under Egyptian and later Anglo-Egyptian Condominium control during the colonial era. British administrators tended to govern the predominantly Christian and animist south separately from the Arab and Muslim north, deepening the cultural and political divide. After Sudanese independence in 1956, the south was almost immediately plunged into civil war. The First Sudanese Civil War lasted from 1955 to 1972, followed by a brief peace before the Second Sudanese Civil War erupted in 1983, driven in part by Khartoum's imposition of sharia law. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement, led by John Garang, fought for autonomy or independence. Garang's death in 2005 and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of the same year eventually paved the way for the 2011 independence referendum. South Sudan joined the United Nations in July 2011, but internal political and ethnic conflict has severely hampered state-building ever since.