South Sudan Facts, Map, People, Religion, History, Currency

South Sudan Facts, Map, People, Religion, History, Currency, Flag, Economy, Flag.

Located in eastern Central Africa, South Sudan (officially the Republic of South Sudan) is a landlocked nation. Its neighbors include Sudan, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, Uganda, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An estimated 11,088,796 people called it home in 2023. The capital and biggest city is Juba.

As of 2023, South Sudan has achieved universal recognition as the most recent sovereign state or country, having declared independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011. As part of it, you’ll find the enormous Sudd marsh, which is shaped by the White Nile and locally called the Bahr al Jabal (meaning “Mountain Sea”). Prior to Sudan’s independence in 1956, the country was ruled as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium when it was occupied by Egypt’s Muhammad Ali dynasty. After the First Sudanese Civil War ended in 1972, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was established and remained in effect until 1983.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 put an end to the second Sudanese civil war, which began shortly after in 1983. The formation of the Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan later that year reestablished autonomy for the southern region.

After receiving 98.8 percent of the vote in favor of independence in a referendum held in January 2011, South Sudan gained its independence on July 9, 2011. From December 2013 until February 2020, the country was engulfed in a civil war marked by severe human rights violations, including massacres of ethnic minorities and the murder of journalists by opposing factions.

However, the situation began to improve in 2018 when the country’s two top combat commanders, Salva Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar, formed a coalition government through a unity deal called the R-ARCSS. This allowed refugees to return home.