"We want to keep his legacy alive...Keeping the peace is how we can honor his memory."
-about john garang, leader of south sudan's liberation movement. he didn't live to see the results.
About South Sudan
There are few places on earth where people have suffered so much for so long. In a half century since Sudanese independence in 1956, there were two wars between the predominantly Arab Muslim population of the north and the mostly Christian and animist Africans of the south. In the south, more than 2 million people were killed and 4 million displaced. Villages, farms, animals and property all were destroyed.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 brought an end to the fighting although skirmishes continued. In a referendum in January 2011, the people of South Sudan voted overwhelmingly for independence. The world’s newest nation was born on July 9, 2011.
One problem that faced the country immediately was that South Sudan lacked a base of skilled and educated people who could create and manage the infrastructure of a government and economy. As a result, the United Nations and a large number of foreign aid agencies were essentially performing some of those functions.
Another problem was that the economy depended heavily on revenue from oil, which accounted for about 97% of government income. Much of that money simply disappeared as a result of waste and corruption. When the price of oil plummeted in 2015, government revenues dried up.
There was a short “honeymoon” period when some progress seemed to be made in creating a new state in more than just name. It lasted only a little more than two years. Relations with the Khartoum government remained tense. Issues arising from the partition of Sudan, such as demarcation of the border, sharing of oil revenues and the fate of millions of ethnic Southerners living north of the border, were not resolved.
But it was internal divisions in South Sudan that virtually tore the country apart. In December 2013 a political power struggle that had been simmering since before independence exploded into violence. It quickly spread to the military, where it became a battle for the most part pitting soldiers from the two largest ethnic groups in the country against each other.
Tragically, innocent victims were targeted. From Juba, the fighting moved to Jonglei state, destroying Bor, the state capital, and other towns. Militias, including teenage boys, got access to weapons and joined in the plunder and carnage. The war spread into areas where oil fields are located. Multiple ceasefire agreements failed to stop the violence. After just a few months, tens of thousands of people had been killed; millions were displaced from homes; towns lay in ruins; and oil production was severely reduced.
In the summer of 2015, the warring parties signed a peace agreement brokered by IGAD (Inter-Governmental Authority on Development), a regional group of neighboring countries, and backed by the United Nations and the United States.
By the summer of 2016, it seemed that the peace agreement might begin to be implemented. But the agreement contained some serious flaws and in July, fighting broke out again in Juba and elsewhere. Thousands of people fled and hundreds were killed. No solution to the dispute seems imminent. Meanwhile, prices have skyrocketed, food is scarce and many people, including the internally displaced persons, are facing starvation.
For more background on the current situation please check: