South Sudan
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South Sudan (/suːˈdɑːn, -ˈdæn/), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in eastern Central Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Kenya, and includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd, formed by the White Nile and known locally as the Bahr al Jabal, meaning "Mountain Sea".[17] The population was 11,088,796 in 2023, and Juba is the capital and largest city.[18] South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011, making it the most recent sovereign state or country with widespread recognition as of 2024.[19]
Republic of South Sudan | |
---|---|
Motto: "Justice, Liberty, Prosperity" | |
Anthem: "South Sudan Oyee!" | |
Capital and largest city | Juba 04°51′N 31°36′E |
Official languages | English[1] |
Recognised national languages | and around 60 other languages[note 1] |
Spoken languages[3] | |
Religion (2020)[8] |
|
Demonym(s) | South Sudanese |
Government | Federal transitional presidential republic[9] |
Salva Kiir Mayardit | |
Riek Machar | |
• Speaker | Jemma Nunu Kumba |
Chan Reec Madut | |
Legislature | Transitional National Legislature |
Council of States | |
Transitional National Legislative Assembly | |
Independence from Sudan | |
• Autonomy | 9 July 2005 |
9 July 2011 | |
Area | |
• Total | 644,329[10] km2 (248,777 sq mi) (41st) |
Population | |
• 2023 estimate | 12,118,379[10] (80th) |
• Density | 13.33/km2 (34.5/sq mi) (214th) |
GDP (PPP) | 2022 estimate |
• Total | $13.6 billion [11] (157th) |
• Per capita | $934[11] (191st) |
GDP (nominal) | 2022 estimate |
• Total | $4.7 billion [11] (164th) |
• Per capita | $326[11] (194th) |
Gini (2016) | 44.1[12] medium |
HDI (2022) | 0.381[13] low (192nd) |
Currency | South Sudanese pound (SSP) |
Time zone | UTC+2 (Central Africa Time) |
Date format | dd/mm/yyyy |
Driving side | right[14] |
Calling code | +211[15] |
ISO 3166 code | SS |
Internet TLD | .ss[16]a |
|
Sudan was occupied by Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty and was 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. A second Sudanese civil war soon 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.[20][21]
South Sudan has suffered extreme ethnic violence, and endured a civil war characterized by rampant human rights abuses, including various ethnic massacres and killings of journalists by various parties to the conflict from December 2013 until February 2020, when competing combat leaders Salva Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar struck a unity deal, the R-ARCSS, in 2018 and formed a coalition government,[22] paving the way for refugees to return home.[23]
The South Sudanese population is composed mostly of Nilotic peoples, and it is demographically among the youngest nations in the world, with roughly half under 18 years old.[24] The majority of inhabitants adhere to Christianity or various Indigenous faiths.
South Sudan is a member of the United Nations,[25][26] the African Union,[27] the East African Community,[28] and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.[29] It is one of the least developed countries in the world, ranking last in the Human Development Index, and as of 2022 also one of the poorest countries by GDP per capita, with only Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Burundi having lower GDPs.[30]
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 bilād as-sūdān (بلاد السودان), or the "Land of the Blacks"[31] The term was used by Arab traders and travellers in the region to refer to the various indigenous black African cultures and societies that they encountered.[32]
The Nilotic people of South Sudan—the Dinka, Anyuak, Bari, Acholi, Nuer, Shilluk, Kaligi (Arabic Feroghe), 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.
The Dinka is the largest, the Nuer the second-largest, the Zande the third-largest, and the Bari the fourth-largest of South Sudan's ethnic groups. 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.[33] British policies favouring Christian missionaries, such as the Closed District Ordinance of 1922 (see History of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), 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 social and cultural heritage, as well as their political and religious institutions.
British colonial policy in Sudan had a long history of emphasizing the development of the Arab north and largely ignoring the Black African 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.[34][35] 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.[36]
The Azande 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.[37]
The Mahdist Revolt of the 1880s destabilized 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.[37] Britain then treated South Sudan as a distinct entity with a different stage of development than the North. This policy was legalized 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.[38]
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 (Anya-Nya is a term in the Madi language which means "snake venom")[39] during the First Sudanese Civil War, followed by the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) 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 11 million people in 2023[40] but, given the lack of a census in several decades, this estimate may be severely distorted. The economy is predominantly rural and relies chiefly on subsistence farming.[41][42] 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, a 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.[43] And on 23 January 2011, members of a steering committee on post-independence governing told reporters that upon independence the land would be named the Republic of South Sudan "out of familiarity and convenience". Other names that had been considered were Azania, Nile Republic, Kush Republic and even Juwama, a portmanteau for Juba, Wau and Malakal, three major cities.[44] 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.[45] The region of Abyei still remains disputed and a separate referendum will be held in Abyei on whether they want to join Sudan or South Sudan.[46] 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[47] (9 July is now celebrated as Independence Day, a national holiday[48]) and since 14 July 2011, South Sudan is the 193rd member of the United Nations.[49] On 27 July 2011, South Sudan became the 54th country to join the African Union.[50][51] In September 2011, Google Maps recognized South Sudan as an independent country, after a massive crowdsourcing mapping initiative was launched.[52]
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.[53] 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.[53][54] Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) 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.[55] 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.[56]
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.[57] South Sudan withdrew on 20 March, and the Sudanese Army entered Heglig two days later.
Joining East Africa
South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Federal Republic of Somalia are the newest members of the East African Community. South Sudan acceded to the Treaty of the East Africa Community on 15 April 2016 and became a full Member on 15 August 2016.[58]
Civil War (2013–2020)
On the 5th of September 2013, an article written by analyst Duop Chak Wuol was published by the US-based South Sudan News Agency (SSNA).[59] 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 (SPLM) 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.[60] Fighting broke out, igniting the South Sudanese Civil War. Ugandan troops were deployed to fight alongside South Sudanese government forces against the rebels.[61] The United Nations has peacekeepers in the country as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Numerous ceasefires were mediated by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) 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.[62] Machar returned to Juba in 2016 and was appointed vice president.[63] Following a second breakout of violence in Juba, Machar was replaced as vice-president[64] and he fled the country[65] as the conflict erupted again. Rebel in-fighting has become a major part of the conflict.[66] 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.[67]
About 400,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the war,[68] including notable atrocities such as the 2014 Bentiu massacre.[69] 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.[70] 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.[71]
On 20 February 2020, Salva Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar agreed to a peace deal,[72] and on 22 February 2020 formed a national unity government as Machar was sworn in as the First Vice President of the country.[73]
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".[74]
The first democratic elections in South Sudan since the start of the civil war were scheduled for 2023 by the peace agreement that ended the war officially, but the transitional government and opposition agreed in 2022 to move them to late 2024 instead.[75]
Government
The now-defunct Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly ratified a transitional constitution[76] shortly before independence on 9 July 2011.[77] The constitution was signed by the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, on Independence Day and thereby came into force. It is now the supreme law of the land, superseding the Interim Constitution of 2005.[78]
The constitution establishes a presidential system of government headed by a president who is head of state, head of government, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. It also establishes the National Legislature comprising two houses: a directly elected assembly, the National Legislative Assembly, and a second chamber of representatives of the states, the Council of States.[79]
John Garang, one of the founders of the SPLA/M, was the president of the autonomous government until his death on 30 July 2005. Salva Kiir Mayardit,[80] his deputy, was sworn in as First Vice President of Sudan and President of the Government of Southern Sudan on 11 August 2005. Riek Machar[80] replaced him as Vice-President of the Government. Legislative power is vested in the government and the bicameral National Legislature. The constitution also provides for an independent judiciary, the highest organ being the Supreme Court.
On 8 May 2021, South Sudan President Salva Kiir announced a dissolution of Parliament as part of a 2018 peace deal to set up a new legislative body that will number 550 lawmakers.[81] According to 2023 V-Dem Democracy indices South Sudan is 3rd lowest ranked electoral democracy in Africa.[82]
National capital project
The capital of South Sudan is located at Juba, which is also the state capital of Central Equatoria and the county seat of the eponymous Juba County, and is the country's largest city. However, due to Juba's poor infrastructure and massive urban growth, as well as its lack of centrality within South Sudan, the South Sudanese Government adopted a resolution in February 2011 to study the creation of a new planned city to serve as the seat of government.[83][84] It is planned that the capital city will be changed to the more centrally located Ramciel.[85] This proposal is functionally similar to construction projects in Abuja, Nigeria; Brasília, Brazil; and Canberra, Australia; among other modern-era planned national capitals. It is unclear how the government will fund the project.
In September 2011, a spokesman for the government said the country's political leaders had accepted a proposal to build a new capital at Ramciel,[86] a place in Lakes state near the borders with Central Equatoria and Jonglei. Ramciel is considered to be the geographical centre of the country,[87] and the late pro-independence leader John Garang allegedly had plans to relocate the capital there before his death in 2005. The proposal was supported by the Lakes state government and at least one Ramciel tribal chief.[88] The design, planning, and construction of the city will likely take as many as five years, government ministers said, and the move of national institutions to the new capital will be implemented in stages.[86]
States
2011–2015
Prior to 2015, South Sudan was divided into 10 states, which also correspond to three historical regions: Bahr el Ghazal, Equatoria, and Greater Upper Nile:
- Western Equatoria
- Central Equatoria (containing the national capital city of Juba)
- Eastern Equatoria
The Abyei Area, a small region of Sudan bordering on the South Sudanese states of Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap, and Unity, was given special administrative status as a result of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005. Following the independence of South Sudan in 2011, Abyei is considered to be simultaneously part of both the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan, effectively a condominium. It was due to hold a referendum in 2011 on whether to join South Sudan or remain part of the Republic of Sudan, but in May 2011, the Sudanese military seized Abyei, and it is not clear if the referendum will be held.
2015–2020
In October 2015, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir issued a decree establishing 28 states in place of the 10 constitutionally established states.[89] The decree established the new states largely along ethnic lines. A number of opposition parties and civil society challenged the constitutionality of this decree and Kiir later resolved to take it to parliament for approval as a constitutional amendment.[90] In November the South Sudanese parliament empowered President Kiir to create new states.[91]
- Bar el Ghazal
- Equatoria
- Amadi
- Gbudwe
- Torit
- Jubek (containing the national capital city of Juba)
- Maridi
- Kapoeta
- Tambura
- Terekeka
- Yei River
- Greater Upper Nile
- Boma
- Central Upper Nile
- Akobo
- Northern Upper Nile
- Jonglei State
- Latjoor
- Maiwut
- Northern Liech
- Ruweng
- Southern Liech
- Bieh
- Fashoda State
- Fangak State
On 14 January 2017 another four states were created; Central Upper Nile, Northern Upper Nile, Tumbura and Maiwut.[92][93]
2020–present
Under the terms of a peace agreement signed on 22 February 2020, South Sudan is divided into 10 states, two administrative areas and one area with special administrative status.[94][95]
The Kafia Kingi area is disputed between South Sudan and Sudan and the Ilemi Triangle is disputed between South Sudan and Kenya.
The states and administrative areas are once again grouped into the three former historical provinces of the Sudan; Bahr el Ghazal, Equatoria and Greater Upper Nile:
- Western Equatoria
- Central Equatoria (containing the national capital city of Juba)
- Eastern Equatoria
- Administrative Areas
- Special Administrative Status Areas
Military
A Defence paper was initiated in 2007 by then Minister for SPLA Affairs Dominic Dim Deng, and a draft was produced in 2008. It declared that Southern Sudan would eventually maintain land, air, and riverine forces.[96][97]
As of 2015[update], South Sudan has the third highest military spending as a percentage of GDP in the world, behind only Oman and Saudi Arabia.[98]
Media
While former Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin vowed that South Sudan will respect freedom of the press and allow journalists unrestricted access in the country, the chief editor of Juba newspaper The Citizen claimed that in the absence of a formal media law in the fledgling republic, he and his staff have faced abuse at the hands of security forces. This alleged fettering of media freedom was attributed in an Al Jazeera report to the difficulty SPLM has faced in reforming itself as a legitimate government after years of leading a rebellion against the Sudanese government. The Citizen is South Sudan's largest newspaper, but poor infrastructure and poverty have kept its staff relatively small and limited the efficiency of both its reporting and its circulation outside of Juba, with no dedicated news bureaus in outlying states and newspapers often taking several days to reach states like Northern Bahr el Ghazal.[99] In May 2020, South Sudan Friendship Press was established as the country's first dedicated online news website.[100] Nile citizens is laid out as the nation's committed web-based news site.[101]
Censorship
On 1 November 2011, South Sudan's National Security Services (NSS) arrested the editor of a private Juba-based daily, Destiny, and suspended its activities indefinitely. This was in response to an opinion article by columnist Dengdit Ayok, entitled "Let Me Say So", which criticized the president for allowing his daughter to marry an Ethiopian national, and accused him of "staining his patriotism". An official letter accused the newspaper of breaking "the media code of conduct and professional ethics", and of publishing "illicit news" that was defamatory, inciting, and invading the privacy of personalities. The Committee to Protect Journalists had voiced concerns over media freedoms in South Sudan in September.[102] The NSS released the journalists without charge after having held them for 18 days.[103]
In 2015, Salva Kiir threatened to kill journalists who reported "against the country".[104] Work conditions have become terrible for journalists, and many have left the country, such as documentarian Ochan Hannington.[105] In August 2015, after journalist Peter Moi was killed in a targeted attack, being the seventh journalist killed during the year, South Sudanese journalists held a 24-hour news blackout.[106]
In August 2017, a 26-year-old American journalist, Christopher Allen, was killed in Kaya, Yei River State, during fighting between government and opposition forces. Christopher Allen was a freelance journalist who had worked for several U.S. news outlets. He had been reportedly embedded with the opposition forces in South Sudan for a week before he was killed.[107] The same month, President Salva Kiir said the millions of civilians fleeing South Sudan were being driven by the propaganda from social media users conspiring against his government.[108] Just a month prior in July 2017, access to major news websites and popular blogs including Sudan Tribune and Radio Tamazuj had been blocked by the government without formal notice.[109] In June 2020, access to Sudans Post, a local news website, was blocked by the government following the publication of an article deemed defamatory by the NSS.[110] Two months later, Qurium Media Foundation, a Swedish non-profit organization, announced that it has deployed a mirror for the website to circumvent the government blocking.[111]
Foreign relations
Since independence, relations with Sudan have been changing. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir first announced, in January 2011, that dual citizenship in the North and the South would be allowed,[112] but upon the independence of South Sudan he retracted the offer. He has also suggested an EU-style confederation.[113] Essam Sharaf, Prime Minister of Egypt after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, made his first foreign visit to Khartoum and Juba in the lead-up to South Sudan's secession.[114] Israel quickly recognized South Sudan as an independent country,[115] and is host to thousands of refugees from South Sudan,[116] who now face deportation to their native country.[117][118] According to American sources, President Obama officially recognised the new state after Sudan, Egypt, Germany and Kenya were among the first to recognise the country's independence on 8 July 2011.[119][120] Several states that participated in the international negotiations concluded with a self-determination referendum were also quick to acknowledge the overwhelming result. The Rationalist process included Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Eritrea, the United Kingdom and Norway.[121][lower-alpha 1]
South Sudan is a member state of the United Nations,[122] the African Union,[27][123] the East African Community,[124][125][126] and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.[127] South Sudan plans to join the Commonwealth of Nations,[128] the International Monetary Fund,[129] OPEC+, and the World Bank.[130] Some international trade organizations categorize South Sudan as part of the Greater Horn of Africa.[131]
Full membership in the Arab League has been assured, should the country's government choose to seek it,[132] though it could also opt for observer status.[133] It was admitted to UNESCO on 3 November 2011.[134] On 25 November 2011, it officially joined the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a regional grouping of East African states.[135]
The United States supported the 2011 referendum on South Sudan's independence. The New York Times reported that "South Sudan is in many ways an American creation, carved out of war-torn Sudan in a referendum largely orchestrated by the United States, its fragile institutions nurtured with billions of dollars in American aid."[136] The U.S. government's long-standing sanctions against Sudan were officially removed from applicability to newly independent South Sudan in December 2011, and senior RSS officials participated in a high-level international engagement conference in Washington, D.C., to help connect foreign investors with the RSS and South Sudanese private sector representatives.[137] Given the interdependence between some sectors of the economy of the Republic of South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan, certain activities still require OFAC authorization. Absent a licence, current Sudanese sanction regulations will continue to prohibit U.S. persons from dealing in property and interests that benefit Sudan or the Government of Sudan.[138] A 2011 Congressional Research Service report, "The Republic of South Sudan: Opportunities and Challenges for Africa's Newest Country", identifies outstanding political and humanitarian issues as the country forges its future.[139]
In July 2019, UN ambassadors of 37 countries, including South Sudan, signed a joint letter to the UNHRC defending China's treatment of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region.[140]
Human rights
Campaigns of atrocities against civilians have been attributed to the SPLA.[141] In the SPLA/M's attempt to disarm rebellions among the Shilluk and Murle, they burned scores of villages, raped hundreds of women and girls and killed an untold number of civilians.[142] Civilians alleging torture claim fingernails being torn out, burning plastic bags dripped on children to make their parents hand over weapons, and villagers burned alive in their huts if it was suspected that rebels had spent the night there.[142] In May 2011, the SPLA allegedly set fire to over 7,000 homes in Unity State.[143]
The UN reports many of these violations and the frustrated director of one Juba-based international aid agency calls them "human rights abuses off the Richter scale".[142] In 2010, the CIA issued a warning that "over the next five years,...a new mass killing or genocide is most likely to occur in southern Sudan."[142] The Nuer White Army has stated it wished to "wipe out the entire Murle tribe on the face of the earth as the only solution to guarantee long-term security of Nuer's cattle"[56] and activists, including Minority Rights Group International, warned of genocide in Jonglei.[144] At the beginning of 2017, genocide was imminent again.[145]
Peter Abdul Rahaman Sule, the leader of the key opposition group United Democratic Forum, has been under arrest since 3 November 2011 over allegations linking him to the formation of a new rebel group fighting against the government.[146][147]
The child marriage rate in South Sudan is 52%.[148] Homosexual acts are illegal.[149]
Recruitment of child soldiers has also been cited as a serious problem in the country.[150] In April 2014, Navi Pillay, then the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that more than 9,000 child soldiers had been fighting in South Sudan's civil war.[151]
The United Nations rights office has described the situation in the country as "one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world". It accused the army and allied militias of allowing fighters to rape women as form of payment for fighting, as well as raid cattle in an agreement of "do what you can, take what you can."[152] Amnesty International claimed the army suffocated more than 60 people accused of supporting the opposition to death in a shipping container.[153]
On 22 December 2017, at the conclusion of a 12-day visit to the region, the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said, "Four years following the start of the current conflict in South Sudan, gross human rights violations continue to be committed in a widespread way by all parties to the conflict, in which civilians are bearing the brunt."[154] The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan was established by the Human Rights Council in March 2016.[154]
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South Sudan lies between latitudes 3° and 13°N, and longitudes 24° and 36°E. It is covered in tropical forest, swamps, and grassland. The White Nile passes through the country, passing by Juba.[112]
South Sudan's protected area of Bandingilo National Park hosts the second-largest wildlife migration in the world. Surveys have revealed that Boma National Park, west of the Ethiopian border, as well as the Sudd wetland and Southern National Park near the border with Congo, provided habitat for large populations of hartebeest, kob, topi, buffalo, elephants, giraffes, and lions.
South Sudan's forest reserves also provided habitat for bongo, giant forest hogs, red river hogs, forest elephants, chimpanzees, and forest monkeys. Surveys begun in 2005 by WCS in partnership with the semi-autonomous government of Southern Sudan revealed that significant, though diminished wildlife populations still exist, and that, astonishingly, the huge migration of 1.3 million antelopes in the southeast is substantially intact.
Habitats in the country include grasslands, high-altitude plateaus and escarpments, wooded and grassy savannas, floodplains, and wetlands. Associated wildlife species include the endemic white-eared kob and Nile Lechwe, as well as elephants, giraffes, common eland, giant eland, oryx, lions, African wild dogs, cape buffalo, and topi (locally called tiang). Little is known about the white-eared kob and tiang, both types of antelope, whose magnificent migrations were legendary before the civil war. The Boma-Jonglei Landscape region encompasses Boma National Park, broad pasturelands and floodplains, Bandingilo National Park, and the Sudd, a vast area of swamp and seasonally flooded grasslands that includes the Zeraf Wildlife Reserve.
Little is known of the fungi of South Sudan. A list of fungi in Sudan was prepared by S. A. J. Tarr and published by the then Commonwealth Mycological Institute (Kew, Surrey, UK) in 1955. The list, of 383 species in 175 genera, included all fungi observed within the then boundaries of the country. Many of those records relate to what is now South Sudan. Most of the species recorded were associated with diseases of crops. The true number of species of fungi in South Sudan is probably much higher.
In 2006, President Kiir announced that his government would do everything possible to protect and propagate South Sudanese fauna and flora, and seek to reduce the effects of wildfires, waste dumping, and water pollution. The environment is threatened by the development of the economy and infrastructure. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 9.45/10, ranking it fourth globally out of 172 countries.[155]
Several ecoregions extend across South Sudan: the East Sudanian savanna, Northern Congolian forest–savanna mosaic, Saharan flooded grasslands (Sudd), Sahelian Acacia savanna, East African montane forests, and the Northern Acacia–Commiphora bushlands and thickets.[156]
Climate
South Sudan has a tropical climate, characterized by a rainy season of high humidity and large amounts of rainfall followed by a drier season. The temperature on average is always high with July being the coolest month with average temperatures falling between 20 and 30 °C (68 and 86 °F) and March being the warmest month with average temperatures ranging from 23 to 37 °C (73 to 98 °F).[157]
The most rainfall is seen between May and October, but the rainy season can commence in April and extend until November. On average May is the wettest month. The season is "influenced by the annual shift of the Inter-Tropical Zone"[80] and the shift to southerly and southwesterly winds leading to slightly lower temperatures, higher humidity, and more cloud coverage.[158]