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South Sudan
Two civil wars against Khartoum, from 1955 and from 1983, ended in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement; in January 2011 southerners voted 98.83 percent to secede, and Africa's newest state was proclaimed on 9 July 2011.
- Independence
- July 9, 2011
- Before
- Southern Sudan (autonomous region of the Republic of Sudan)
- Metropole
- Sudan
- Transition
- Secession Referendum
- Movement
- Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), founded in 1983 by John Garang and led from 2005 by Salva Kiir Mayardit
- Head of government at independence
- Salva Kiir Mayardit
“For many generations this land has seen untold suffering and death. We have been bombed, maimed, enslaved and treated worse than a refugee in our own country; but we have to forgive although we will not forget.”
— Salva Kiir Mayardit, President, July 9, 2011
The Closed South
Under the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium the three southern provinces were governed apart from the Arabic-speaking north. A 1905 decree barred missionary activity north of the tenth parallel, and a 'Southern Policy' restricted movement, promoted English and Christian mission schools and left the south administratively closed until the 1940s. Only at the Juba Conference of 1947 did Britain decide the south would go to independence inside a single Sudan. On 18 August 1955, months before that independence, southern soldiers of the Equatoria Corps at Torit mutinied rather than be posted north, opening the first civil war.
Two Wars
The Anyanya insurgency ended with the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972, which created a Southern Sudan Autonomous Region. In 1983 President Nimeiri dissolved the region and imposed Islamic law, and Colonel John Garang led mutinying southern troops into the Sudan People's Liberation Army. The second civil war ran for twenty-two years, killing about two million people through fighting, famine and disease and displacing millions more; the SPLA also split along ethnic lines in 1991, and more southerners died fighting each other than fighting the north.
Naivasha, the Referendum and 9 July
The Machakos Protocol of 20 July 2002 conceded the south's right of self-determination, and on 9 January 2005 the Government of Sudan and the SPLM signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement at Naivasha: six years of autonomy, shared oil revenue and a referendum on secession. Garang died in a helicopter crash on 30 July 2005 and Salva Kiir succeeded him. From 9 to 15 January 2011, 3,792,518 southerners, 98.83 percent of valid votes on a turnout of nearly 98 percent, chose independence. At midnight on 9 July 2011 the Republic of South Sudan came into being, with Kiir as president; it was admitted to the UN on 14 July as the 193rd member state.
Chronology
- 1947 — Juba Conference: the south to remain in a unified Sudan
- 18 August 1955 — Torit mutiny opens the first civil war
- 1972 — Addis Ababa Agreement creates the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region
- 1983 — Autonomy revoked; Sharia imposed; SPLM/A founded under John Garang
- 20 July 2002 — Machakos Protocol concedes self-determination
- 9 January 2005 — Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed at Naivasha
- 30 July 2005 — Garang dies; Salva Kiir succeeds him
- 9–15 January 2011 — Referendum: 98.83% for secession
- 9 July 2011 — Independence of the Republic of South Sudan
- 14 July 2011 — Admitted to the UN as the 193rd member state
Documents
- Treaty Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Sudan and the SPLM/SPLA, Naivasha, 9 January 2005
- Treaty Machakos Protocol, 20 July 2002
- Referendum Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, final results, 7 February 2011
- Constitution Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, 9 July 2011
- UN Resolution UN General Assembly Resolution 65/308, 14 July 2011
Aftermath
The new state inherited disputes with Khartoum over oil, the Abyei area and the border. On 15 December 2013 fighting broke out within Kiir's presidential guard and he accused his dismissed vice-president Riek Machar of a coup; the civil war that followed, largely along Dinka-Nuer lines, killed hundreds of thousands and displaced about four million. A peace agreement in August 2015 collapsed, a revitalised agreement in September 2018 produced a unity government in 2020, and the promised elections were repeatedly postponed.
Legacy
South Sudan is the youngest state in Africa and the second, after Eritrea, to leave an African state by referendum; its descent into civil war within thirty months of independence became the sharpest warning of how little a liberation movement's victory guarantees a functioning state.