South Sudan

The Situation

On January 9th, 2011 the people of South Sudan voted to secede from the North and form a new nation. This vote was promised in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in 2005, which ended a brutal 22-year civil war between the Sudanese government and groups in South Sudan. The January referendum displayed a landslide vote for secession, with nearly 100% of voters in the South voting in favor of separation.

Six months later on July 9, 2011, the Republic of South Sudan officially became independent. Despite a peaceful separation between the North and South, there remain several unresolved and contentious issues, including the Abyei region, border delineation, popular consultations for two regions remaining in the North, and oil wealth sharing.

From 1983-2005, the North and South fought a brutal civil war which led to the deaths of an estimated two million Southerners and displaced an additional four million civilians. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s forces not only directly attacked the South but also manipulated tribal tensions to create internal conflict that still persists today. While the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) signed a peace agreement in 2005, Bashir has continued to support instability in the South.

The ongoing uncertainty surrounding the future of Abyei is particularly concerning following the Sudanese government’s invasion of the region in May. According to the CPA, the residents of Abyei were scheduled to have a referendum vote on whether or not they would be part of Sudan’s South or North. This referendum for Abyei was to run at the same time as the referendum on South Sudan’s independence, however, it was indefinitely postponed due to an inability of the parties to reach agreement on voter eligibility. On May 21, 2011 the Government of Sudan invaded the disputed Abyei region which resulted in the displacement of more than 113,000 civilians.

As the world’s newest nation, South Sudan will face many political, economic, and security challenges. The government is dominated by one party, the SPLM, a group that is still working to transition from its roots as a rebel group that fought for years in the bush.  The country’s first president, Salva Kiir, and vice president, Riek Machar, are both former rebel leaders who at one time fought against each other.  The South has a history of inter-ethnic fighting as well as clashes between rebel groups and the SPLA which have had a negative impact on civilians in the region. Over 1,500 people have been killed this year by fighting in the South.  The South also faces immense development challenges ranking near the bottom of the Human Development Index and with nearly 90 percent of the population illiterate. The international community must constructively engage with South Sudan to promote good governance, economic development, and security sector reform in order to achieve sustainable peace.