Description

South Sudan is a landlocked country in East Africa, bordered by Ethiopia to the east, Uganda, Kenya & the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south, Republic of Sudan to the north, and the Central African Republic (CAR) to the west. 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 a population of 12.7 million. Juba is the capital and largest city. 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 also the poorest country in the world (ranked 191st by United Nations, IMF & World Bank), mostly due to the extreme internal violence & conflict that has plagued the country since the British Empire granted independence to the united Sudan in 1956. The region also suffers from extreme dry periods & droughts due to the Ethiopian climate crisis & heavy rainfall that causes chaotic floods & mud slides throughout the whole country. The north-west of the country is also very close to the Sahara, in the Sahelian region, leading to the extreme dryness of the region. This has caused some of the worst famines not only seen in African history, but in human history (reportedly over 10 million South Sudanese are affected by the famines, almost the entire nation’s population)

Unfortunately, even since before the country gained independence in 2011 from the Republic of Sudan to the north, the country has been plagued by internal & external conflict involving various nations all over the world. There are various factors contributing to the country’s conflict, such as natural resources like oil, political & ethnic differences and even outsiders like Chinese companies coming over and setting up oil refineries, at the cost of the locals and which no debts or reparations are ever paid to the locals by these companies. This has spawned various militias & rebel groups all over the country, namely the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) who fought against the tyrannical Sudanese government in Khartoum (Omar al-Bashir) for independence, which they succeeded and broke away in 2011. However, other groups formed such as the SPLM-in-Opposition (led by Riek Machar), Nuer White Army, South Sudan Democratic Movement/SSDM (led by General Yau-Yau and popular musician, Gordon Koang), Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North/SPLM-N (led by Malik Agar). These rebel factions fought each other for nearly 7 years after independence (2013-2020) over territorial control in the country. The main 2 chief factions leading the civil war were the SPLA/M government under President Salva Kiir Mayardit, and the SPLM-IO under former Vice-President & Army General Riek Machar, who previously fought many struggles against the Khartoum government in the 1990s & 2000s.

By 2020, the civil war had fortunately & finally come to an end with a peace agreement formed due to military stalemate. Riek Machar was then promoted again to Vice-President under Salva Kiir’s leadership which he still remains as to this day in December 2024. However, South Sudan is still an extremely dangerous country (Ranked 3rd in the world, ahead of Afghanistan/4th and behind Sudan/2nd) and still suffers from heavy ethnic violence, street crime, gang violence, rape, serial murder and terrorism. FCDO completely advises against all travel in all parts of the country including the safest parts of Juba. Today, over 8 million South Sudanese remain displaced worldwide, most of which are now living in the United States, United Kingdom and France. Popular musician Gordon Koang, from the Nuer tribe, is now living in Australia as an asylum seeker, overseas leader of SSDM alongside former General Yau-Yau to assist charities & aid work for South Sudan.