South Sudan
South Sudan officially known as the Republic of South Sudan, is a
landlocked country in East-Central Africa. It is bordered to the
east by Ethiopia, to the north by Sudan, to the west by the Central
African Republic, to the southwest by Democratic Republic of the
Congo, to the south by Uganda and to the southeast by Kenya. It
gained independence from the Republic of the Sudan in 2011, making
it the most recent sovereign state or country with widespread
recognition. Its capital and largest city is Juba. It includes the
vast swamp region of the Sudd, formed by the White Nile and known
locally as the Bahr al Jabal meaning "Mountain River". |
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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, ending 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 98.83% support for independence in a January 2011
referendum. It has suffered ethnic violence and endured a civil war
characterised by rampant human rights abuses, including various
ethnic massacres and killings of journalists by all sides from 2013
until 22 February 2020, when South Sudan rivals Salva Kiir Mayardit
and Riek Machar struck a unity deal and formed a coalition
government, paving the way for refugees to return home.
South Sudan has a population of 12 million, mostly of the Nilotic
peoples, and it is demographically among the youngest nations in the
world, with roughly half under 18 years old. The majority of
inhabitants adhere to Christianity or various Indigenous faiths. The
country is a member of the United Nations, the African Union, the
East African Community the Intergovernmental Authority on
Development and is a party to the Geneva Conventions. As of 2019,
South Sudan ranks third-lowest in the latest UN World Happiness
Report, second lowest on the Global Peace Index, and has the
third-highest score on the American Fund for Peace's Fragile States
Index. |
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