Riek and president kiir signed peace agreement which designated riek as the first vice president in south sudan history. Most recently, sudan has been in the news because south sudan seceded from sudan on july 9, 2011. Amongst other things, it challenges recent notions of south sudan as a blank slate. A year later, the new country of south sudan was created when nearly 99 percent of the. The democratic periods lasted for a total of only fifteen years. Traitors, sellouts and political loyalty in the new state of south sudan. Since the historic nasir declaration of august 28, 1991, the demand of the people of south sudan for the right of self determination, as a peaceful political resolution of the forty year war. Final boundary between the republic of sudan and the republic of south sudan has not yet been determined. Riek machar tenydhurgon chairman and commanderinchief, ssima. Understanding the roots of conflict in south sudan. Made up of the 10 southernmost states of sudan, south. This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the oxford research encyclopedia of african history.
The untold story from independence to civil war hilde f. The region was administered under the constitution for southern sudan, promulgated in december 2005, as well as the. The creation of the semiautonomous region of southern sudan was provided for by the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement cpa that ended the longrunning civil war between the north and the south. Prior to autonomy and eventual independence, southern sudan was a region of the republic of sudan, which had achieved independence from the corule of great britain and egypt in 1956. In 2010, national elections were held that were generally deemed by international observers to be fraudulent. Johnson and others published the political crisis in south sudan find, read and cite all the research you need on. South sudan gained independence from sudan on 9 july 2011 as the outcome of a 2005 agreement that ended africas longestrunning civil war. As a political entity, then, sudan likemany african countriesisa fairly recent creation. Sudan was formally recognised as a political and administrative entity for. South sudan s prenineteenth century political history matters. South sudans independence einternational relations.
Since the split, sudan and south sudan s oil production has declined because of continued domestic political instability and conflict between the two countries. His paper discusses attitudes towards federalism and the ways it was presented from before sudan s independence in 1956, up to south sudan s independence. South sudan conflict analysis brief south sudan, the worlds youngest nation, continues to struggle despite the august 2015 signature of a peace agreement. South sudan s civil war is the result of a weakly institutionalized state and may require the african unions intervention to find peace and. Since the historic nasir declaration of august 28, 1991, the demand of the people of south sudan for the right of self determination, as a peaceful political resolution of the forty year war in the sudan, has been a real challenging problem to sudanese political forces and parties. They were the ones who organized the first ever pansouthern conference, held in the juba cinema now an episcopal church in october 1954, which debated the south s future in sudan. A history of the precolonial stateless society that corresponds to the political entity that is south sudan.
He offers an incisive analysis of the conflict in relation to the struggle for natural resources in south sudan by internal and external groups. Ali, viceroy of egypt under the ottoman empire, the southern sudan was plundered for slaves. South sudan, officially the republic of south sudan and previously known as southern sudan, is a landlocked country in eastcentral africa that is part of the united nations subregion of eastern africa. As its implementation faltered, violence between factions broke out again in july 2016, setting back the peace process once again. A close association between social anthropology and policy is not new in south sudan. This report is an indepth analysis of the political economy of south sudan, and it critically assesses the development challenges since independence. I am neutral on the applicability of federalism to south. Solutions for moving beyond an ethnic conflict kuntzelman 83 cause of southern sudan s current underdevelopment is rooted in this colonial history, as colonial preference was given to the arab regions of the north, where power and decisionmaking became centralized in. Southern leaders and members of the sudan defense force cited oppression. Federalism in the history of south sudanese political thought. Pdf the political crisis in south sudan researchgate.
South sudan and the emerging security implications for. Indeed a precolonial history of what is actually, geographically, the worlds largest swamp south sudan is challenging and at present impossible without the use of oral histories, along with a very few. What is behind the economic and political crisis in sudan. By the end of the 19th century the sudan was under britishegyptian rule. South sudan was settled by many of its current ethnic groups during the 15th19th centuries. Sudan s independence, the flag was raised on 1 january 1956 by pm ismail alazhari and opposition leader mohamed ahmed almahjoub. The south was granted a large measure of regional autonomy and, in 1973, a secular state and presidential political system was established throughout sudan. In july 2011, south sudan was granted independence and became the worlds newest country. Yet just twoandahalf years after this momentous decision, the country was in the grips of renewed civil war and political strife. The history of south sudan comprises the history of the territory of presentday south sudan and the peoples inhabiting the region south sudan seceded from the republic of sudan in 2011. Yet just twoandahalf years after this momentous decision, the country was in the grips of renewed civil war and political. Sudan s history is full of political struggles and military coups. Another feature of sudan s instability is the civil wars that have continued since independence, with the. The state in south sudan is weak and underdeveloped to.
The unified sudan began producing oil in 1999, and as a result, the country tripled its per capita. It particularly focuses on the period after the august 2015 agreement for the resolution of. This concept also neglects the historical dimensions of state structures and history of divisions within the society and the political sphere in south sudan. Precolonial history of south sudan oxford research. The origins of the sudans current problems predate the. South sudan has had a turbulent history, one linked fundamentally to its northern neighbor, the republic of sudan. South sudan, as a result of tribal and political conflict, is a country in name only.
The causes of sudans recent economic decline haitham abdualaziz almosharaf 1, fung deng tian 2 school of economics and management lanzhou jiaotong university, china abstract. From the outset, the west maneuvered to influence the new nations politics, pushing the government to take rightwing positions. Sudan and south sudan s dependency on oil, the strategic importance of countries like india investing in the region, and the longterm issues of sustenance will play a vital role in ensuring a future of peace, progress and prosperity for both the republics. Examining the status of the south sudan civil war and discussing the evolving. This introductory essay to the online selection of african affairs articles documents and analyses this phenomenon. Using south sudan as its case, then, this report further interrogates peoples perceptions of the state, focusing. Conflict in south sudan and the challenges ahead congressional research service summary south sudan, which separated from sudan in 2011 after almost 40 years of civil war, was drawn into a devastating new conflict in late 20, when a political dispute that overlapped with preexisting ethnic and political fault lines turned violent. South sudan s protracted political crisis has increased in complexity as the the main actors fragment into factions or form new alliances and the dynamics of the conflict change. In federalism in the history of south sudanese political thought, douglas johnson explains how the idea evolved in the colonial era as part of the southern search for political identity. Most of economists use the background of the civil war in sudan to analyze the sudanese economic decline in. It is close to five years since civil war began in south sudan with negotiations failing to. Pdf political history of southern sudan before independence of.
A history of south sudan south sudan is the worlds youngest independent country. The emerging security threats that south sudan faces is a reflection of its geography, cultural diversity and political history as one unified and tied with that of the republic of sudan. Seeking the right formula for peaceful coexistence and sustainable development. What started as a political conflict in south sudan in december 20 has created a.
Ending south sudans civil war council on foreign relations. Her research and publications since 2001 have focused on the historical and contemporary role of chiefs in southern sudan, and related issues of governance, statesociety relations and political. Established in 2011 after two wars, south sudan has since reverted to a state of devastating civil strife. Pdf south sudan struggle for independence, and its implications. Sudan had been divided culturally and ethnically between the majoritymuslim arab north and the majoritychristian nilotic south. The country has witnessed three military coups that set up authoritarian regimes that ruled for 48 years. The republic of south sudan annotated bibliography library of.
Political instability prevailed in sudan throughout the sixty years of national independence that began in 1956. Like many territorial demarcations in the continent, sudan s present borderlines were defined by the colonial powers at the turn ofthe century. South sudan has all the hallmarks of a failed state. Pdf on jan 1, 2015, samson samuel wassara and others published political history of southern sudan before independence of the sudan. A main argument is that its political economy is fundamentally atypical. Sudan snorthsouthconflictowes its genesis tothecolonialpast. Geographically, south sudan is not part of the sudan region at all the sahel, forming as it does part of subsaharan africa. Sitati wasilwa writes about the political economy of the civil war in south sudan. South sudan the boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the united nations.