South Sudan Independence
South Sudan's independence on 9 July 2011 was the product of Africa's longest civil war and an internationally brokered peace process. The Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005) had pitted the Arab Muslim government in Khartoum against the largely Christian and animist populations of the south, organised under the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) led by John Garang and, after his death in 2005, Salva Kiir. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement included a provision for a referendum on southern independence after a six-year interim period. The January 2011 referendum produced a 98.83% vote for independence — one of the most lopsided democratic mandates in history — reflecting the south's near-universal rejection of Khartoum's rule after 2 million deaths and mass displacement. Independence was declared on 9 July 2011 to international celebration; President Obama called it 'a time to look forward.' South Sudan joined the United Nations on 14 July 2011 as its 193rd member state. The post-independence state collapsed almost immediately. The SPLM/A — the liberation movement — had never built governing institutions, only fought a war. Oil revenue (South Sudan controls roughly 75% of Sudan's oil) became a source of factional competition rather than development. In December 2013, President Salva Kiir (Dinka ethnic group) dismissed Vice President Riek Machar (Nuer ethnic group), triggering a civil war that rapidly acquired ethnic dimensions — approximately 400,000 people were killed and 4 million displaced in one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 2010s. A peace agreement was signed in September 2018; a transitional unity government was formed in 2020. South Sudan remained one of the world's worst humanitarian situations.
- Year: 2011 CE
- Category: Political
