South Sudan

Southern Sudan جنوب السودان Janūb as-Sūdān
Flag Emblem of Southern Sudan Emblem
Capital	Juba
Official languages	Arabic, English
Recognised regional languages	Juba Arabic is lingua franca around Juba. Dinka 2–3 million; other major languages are Nuer, Zande, Bari, Shilluk
Ethnic groups	Dinka, Nuer, Bari, Lotuko, Kuku, Zande, Mundari, Kakwa, Pojulu, Shilluk, Moru, Acholi, Madi, Lulubo, Lokoya, Toposa, Lango, Didinga, Murle, Anuak, Makaraka, Mundu, Jur, Kaliko, and others.
Demonym(s)	South Sudanese
Government	Autonomous region
• President	Salva Kiir Mayardit
• Vice-President	Riek Machar
Legislature	Legislative Assembly
Establishment
• Comprehensive Peace Agreement	6 January 2005
• Government of Southern Sudan established	9 July 2005
Area
• Total	619,745 km2 (239,285 sq mi)
Population
• Estimate	7.5–9.7 million (2006, UNFPA) 11,000,000–13,000,000 (Southern Sudan claim, 2009)
• 2008 census	8,260,490 (disputed)
Currency	Sudanese Pound (SDG)
Time zone	UTC+3 (East Africa Time)
Calling code	249
Internet TLD	.sd (as part of Sudan)

Southern Sudan, (Arabic: جنوب السودان, Janūb as-Sūdān) also known as South Sudan, is a future country in the southern part of the Sudan. Juba is its capital city. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the east; Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south; and the Central African Republic to the west. To the north lies the predominantly Arab and Muslim region directly under the control of the central government, with its capital at Khartoum. Southern Sudan includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd formed by the White Nile, locally called the Bahr al Jebel. The region's autonomous status is a condition of a peace agreement between the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) and the Government of Sudan represented by the National Congress Party ending the Second Sudanese Civil War. The conflict was Africa's longest running civil war.

A referendum on independence for Southern Sudan was held from 9–15 January 2011. Preliminary results released by the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission on 30 January 2011 indicate that 98% of voters selected the "separation" option, with 1% selecting "unity". The final resuls were announced on 7 February with 98.83 of the electorate opting for secession. The Sudanese Government accepted the outcome of the referendum the same day. Southern Sudan is expected to become an independent country on 9 July 2011. On 23 January 2011, members of a steering committee on post-independence governing told reporters that upon independence the land would be named the Republic of South Sudan "out of familiarity and convenience." Other names that had been considered were Azania, Nile Republic, Kush Republic and even Juwama, a portmanteau for Juba, Wau and Malakal, three major cities.

History

There is little documentation of the history of the southern provinces until the beginning of Egyptian rule in the north in the early 1820s and the subsequent extension of into the south. Information before that time is based largely on oral history. According to these traditions, the Nilotic peoples—the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, and others—first entered southern Sudan sometime before the 10th century. During the period from the 15th century to the 19th century, tribal migrations, largely from the area of Bahr el Ghazal, brought these peoples to their modern locations. The non-Nilotic Azande people, who entered southern Sudan in the 16th century, established the region's largest state. The Azande are the third largest nationality in Southern Sudan. They are found in Maridi, Yambio and Tambura districts in the tropical rain forest belt of western Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal. In the 18th century, the Avungara people entered and quickly imposed their authority over the Azande. Avungara power remained largely unchallenged until the arrival of the British at the end of the 19th century. Geographical barriers protected the southerners from Islam's advance, enabling them to retain their social and cultural heritage and their political and religious institutions.

The Azande have had difficult relations with the neighbours namely the Moro, Mundu, Pöjulu and the small groups in Bahr el Ghazal due to their expansionist policy of their King Gbudwe in the 18th century. The Azande fought the French and the Belgians, the Mahdist to maintain their independence. Egypt, under the rule of Khedive Isma'il Pasha, first attempted to colonise the region in the 1870s, establishing the province of Equatoria in the southern portion. Egypt's first governor was Samuel Baker, commissioned in 1869, followed by Charles George Gordon in 1874 and by Emin Pasha in 1878. The Mahdist Revolt of the 1880s destabilised the nascent province, and Equatoria ceased to exist as an Egyptian outpost in 1889. Important settlements in Equatoria included Lado, Gondokoro, Dufile and Wadelai. In 1947, British hopes to join the southern part of Sudan with Uganda were dashed by the Juba Conference, to unify northern and southern Sudan.

It is estimated that the Southern region has a population of 8 million, but given the lack of a census in several decades, this estimate may be severely distorted. The economy is predominantly rural and relies chiefly on subsistence farming. At the beginning of 2005, the economy began a transition from this rural dominance and urban areas within Southern Sudan have seen extensive development. The region has been negatively affected by two civil wars since Sudanese independence – the Sudanese government fought the Anyanya rebel army from 1955 to 1972 in the First Sudanese Civil War and then SPLA/M in the Second Sudanese Civil War for almost twenty-one years after the founding of SPLA/M in 1983 – resulting in serious neglect, lack of infrastructural development, and major destruction and displacement. More than 2.5 million people have been killed, and more than 5 million have become externally displaced while others have been internally displaced, becoming refugees as a result of the civil war and war-related impacts.

Referendum for independence (2011)

Main article: Southern Sudanese independence referendum, 2011

From 9–15 January 2011 people from South Sudan voted on whether they should break away from Sudan and declare independence. On 30 January 2011, the results had shown that 98.83% of the population had voted for independence from Sudan. Many people moved from North Sudan to South for voting to be independent. It is expected that a formal declaration of independence will be made on 9 July finally ensuring that South Sudan will become an independent state, although certain disputes still remain such as sharing of the oil revenues as an estimated 80% of the oil in the nation is secured from South Sudan, which would represent amazing economic potential for one of the world's most deprived areas. The region of Abyei still remains disputed and a separate referendum will be held in Abyei on whether they want to join North or South Sudan.

Government

Main article: Politics of Southern Sudan

Salva Kiir Mayardit, First elected President of Southern Sudan

Aside from the Interim National Constitution of the Republic of Sudan, the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan of 2005 is the supreme law of Southern Sudan. The Constitution establishes an autonomous Government of Southern Sudan headed by a President who is Head of Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan People's Liberation Army. John Garang, the founder of the SPLA/M was the first President until his death on 30 July 2005. Salva Kiir Mayärdït, his deputy, was sworn in as First Vice President of Sudan and President of the Government of Southern Sudan on 11 August 2005. Riek Machar replaced him as Vice-President. Legislative power is vested in the government and the unicameral Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly. The Constitution also provides for an independent judiciary, the highest organ being the Supreme Court.

Defence Paper on defence processes was initiated in 2007 by (late) Minister for SPLA Affairs Gen. Dominic Dim Deng and produced a draft in 2008, declaring that Southern Sudan should eventually maintain land, air, and riverine forces.

Developing state capacity

The post-conflict environment is important to understanding the Government of Southern Sudan's ability to function and successfully implement its policies. One area the Government of South Sudan has had significant success in building its own capacity is in developing an integrated system for planning and budget preparation. This has been achieved through the strong and determined leadership of the Ministry of Finance, the strong technical leadership and support of that same ministry and making these goals relevant to local capacity. The results have been that the government has been better able to manage the financial aspects of its functions and projects, and increases in the expertise of its staff in crucial skills, such as basic IT. However, there are a significant number of post-referendum challenges to state building that will need to be sequentially overcome.

States and counties

  North Sudan

  Darfur

  Eastern Front, area of operations July 2006

  South Sudan

  Abyei (to hold referendum in 2011)

  South Kurdufan and Blue Nile (to hold "popular consultations" in 2011)

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) defines Southern Sudan as three southern provinces (Bahr el Ghazal, Equatoria, and Upper Nile) of the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region, leaving out Nuba Mountains, Abyei and Blue Nile. Abyei will hold a referendum on joining Southern Sudan or staying under Sudanese control, while Nuba Mountains (South Kurdufan as a whole) and Blue Nile are required to hold ill-defined "popular consultations".

• Bahr el Ghazal
  • Western Bahr el Ghazal
  • Northern Bahr el Ghazal
  • Warrap
  • Lakes

• Equatoria
  • Eastern Equatoria
  • Central Equatoria
  • Western Equatoria

• Upper Nile
  • Jonglei
  • Unity
  • Upper Nile

The ten states are further subdivided into 86 counties.

Geography

Flora and fauna

Southern Sudan's protected areas support some of the most spectacular and important wildlife populations in Africa, and hosted the second largest wildlife migration in the world. Surveys in the preceding years revealed that Boma National Park, west of the Ethiopian border, as well as the Sudd wetland and Southern National Park near the border with Congo, provided habitat for large populations of kob and topis (two types of antelope), buffalo, elephants, giraffes, Hartebeests (another antelope), and lions. Southern Sudan's forest reserves also provided habitat for bongo (also an antelope), giant forest hogs, Red River Hogs, forest elephants, chimpanzees, and forest monkeys.

Recent surveys begun in 2005 by WCS in partnership with the semi-autonomous government of Southern Sudan revealed that significant, though diminished wildlife populations still exist, and that, astonishingly, the huge migration of 1.3 million antelopes in the southeast is substantially intact. Today the region is sparsely populated with only 7 million people spread across the vast floodplain of the Nile River.

In 2006 the president of Southern Sudan announced that the region would do everything possible to protect and propagate its flora and fauna, and seek to reduce the effects of wildfires, waste dumping, and water pollution. At the same time, large multinational companies are poised to extract natural resources in Southern Sudan on a wide scale, posing threats to the nation's remarkable wildlife and their habitats.

Southern Sudan’s wildlife habitats include grasslands, high-altitude plateaus and escarpments, wooded and grassy savannahs, floodplains, and wetlands. Associated wildlife species include the endemic white-eared kob and Nile Lechwe, as well as elephants, giraffes, Common Eland, Giant Eland, oryx, lions, African Wild Dogs, Cape Buffalo, and topi (locally called tiang). Little is currently known about the white-eared kob and tiang, whose magnificent migrations were legendary before the civil war. The Boma-Jonglei Landscape region encompasses Boma National Park, broad pasturelands and floodplains, Bandingilo National Park, and the Sudd, a vast area of swamp and seasonally flooded grasslands that includes the Zeraf Wildlife Reserve.

Demographics

Language

Southern Sudan is composed of more than 200 ethnic groups and is, along with the adjacent Nuba Hills, one of the most linguistically diverse regions of Africa. However, many of the languages are quite small, with only a few thousand speakers.

The official language is English. Colloquial Arabic is spoken widely, though Juba Arabic, a pidgin, is spoken around the capital. The most populous language by native speakers is Dinka, a dialect continuum spoken by 2–3 million people. Dinka is a Western Nilotic language; closely related to its southern Sudan's second most populous language, Nuer, and a bit more distant is Shilluk. Major Eastern Nilotic languages are Bari and Otuho. Besides the Nilotic family, Zande, southern Sudan's third most populous language, is Ubangian. Jur Modo is of the Bongo-Bagirmi family.

Population

2008 census

The "Fifth Population and Housing Census of Sudan", of Sudan as a whole, was conducted in April 2008. However the census results of Southern Sudan were rejected by Southern Sudanese officials as reportedly "the central bureau of statistics in Khartoum refused to share the national Sudan census raw data with southern Sudan centre for census, statistic and evaluation." The census showed the Southern Sudan population to be 8.26 million, however President Salva Kiir had "suspected figures were being deflated in some regions and inflated in others, and that made the final tally "unacceptable"." He also claimed the Southern Sudanese population to really be one-third of Sudan, while the census showed it to be only 22%. Many Southern Sudanese were also said to not have been counted "due to bad weather, poor communication and transportation networks, and some areas were unreachable, while many Southern Sudanese remained in exile in neighbouring countries, leading to 'unacceptable results', according [to] southern Sudanese authorities." The chief American technical adviser for the census in the South said the census-takers probably reached 89% of the population.

2009 census

In 2009 Sudan started a new Southern Sudanese census ahead of the 2011 independence referendum, which is said to also include the Southern Sudanese diaspora. However this initiative was criticised as it was to leave out countries with a high share of the Southern Sudanese diaspora, and rather count countries where the diaspora share was low.

Religion

Current

Southern Sudan's population is predominantly Animists with a Christian minority (15 to 20%). Amongst Christians, most are Catholic and Anglican, though other denominations are also active, and animist beliefs are often blended with Christian beliefs. In recent years Christian churches have grown.

Historically

According to the Federal Research Division of the US Library of Congress: "in the early 1990s possibly no more than 10 percent of southern Sudan's population was Christian".

Economy

Sudan also exports timber to the international market. Some of the states with the best known teaks and natural trees for timber are Western Equatoria and Central Equatoria. One of the major natural features of the Southern Sudan is the River Nile whose many tributaries have sources in the country. The region also contains many natural resources such as petroleum, iron ore, copper, chromium ore, zinc, tungsten, mica, silver, gold, and hydropower. The country's economy, as in many other developing countries, is heavily dependent on agriculture. Some of the agricultural produce include cotton, groundnuts (peanuts), sorghum, millet, wheat, gum arabic, sugarcane, cassava (tapioca), mangos, papaya, bananas, sweet potatoes, and sesame. In Central Equatoria some teak plantations are at Kegulu, the other, oldest planted forest reserves are Kawale, Lijo, Loka West and Nuni. Western Equatoria timber resources include Mvuba trees at Zamoi.

Loka teaks is the largest teak plantation in Africa.

Oil

Southern Sudan produces 85% of Sudanese oil output. The oil revenues according to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), are to be split equally for the duration of the agreement period. Oil revenues constitute more than 98% of the semi-autonomous government of Southern Sudan's budget. The oil and other mineral resources can be found throughout Southern Sudan, but the Bentiu is commonly known as being especially rich in oil, while Jonglei, Warap and Lakes states have potential reserves.

In recent years, a significant amount of foreign-based oil drilling has begun in Southern Sudan, raising the land's geopolitical profile. Khartoum has partitioned much of Sudan into blocks, with about 85% of the oil coming from the South. Blocks 1, 2, and 4 are controlled by the largest overseas consortium, the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC). GNPOC is composed of the following players: China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC, People's Republic of China), with a 40% stake; Petronas (Malaysia), with 30%; Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (India), with 25%; and Sudapet of the central Sudan government with 5%.

The other producing blocks in the South are blocks 3 and 7 in Eastern Upper Nile. These blocks are controlled by Petrodar which is 41% owned by CNPC, 40% by Petronas, 8% by Sudapet, 6% by Sinopec Corp and 5% by Al Thani.

Another major block in the South, called Block B by Khartoum, is claimed by several players. Total of France was awarded the concession for the 90,000 square kilometre block in the 1980s but has since done limited work invoking "force majeure". Various elements of the SPLM handed out the block or parts thereof to other parties of Southern Sudan. Several of these pre-Naivasha deals were rejected when the SPLM/A leader Dr. John Garang de Mabior lost power.

The wealth-sharing section of the CPA states that all agreements signed prior to the CPA would hold; they would not be subject to review by the National Petroleum Commission (NPC), a commission set up by the CPA and composed of both Khartoum and Southerners and co-chaired by both President al-Bashir of Khartoum and President Kiir of Southern Sudan. However, the CPA does not specify who could sign those pre-CPA agreements.

Games and sports

Southern Sudan is popular for many traditional and modern games and sports, particularly wrestling and mock battles. The traditional sports were mainly played after the harvest seasons to celebrate the harvests and finish the farming seasons. The wrestlers were generally strong, well-trained young men. During the matches, they smeared themselves with ochre – perhaps to enhance the grip or heighten their perception. The matches attracted large numbers of spectators who sang, played drums and danced in support of their favourite wrestlers. Though these were perceived as competition, they were primarily for entertainment. At the conclusion, people feasted and generally made merry.

In the modern era, Southern Sudanese have excelled in international sports. Luol Deng is a basketball star with the Chicago Bulls in the National Basketball Association. Other leading international basketball players from Southern Sudan include Manute Bol, Ajou Deng, Kueth Duany, Deng Gai and Ater Majok.

Majak Daw is on track to become the first Sudanese-born professional Australian rules football player, having been signed to the North Melbourne Kangaroos in the AFL in late 2009.

Football is also becoming popular in Southern Sudan, and there are many initiatives by the Government of Southern Sudan and other partners to promote the sport and improve the level of play. One of these initiatives is South Sudan Youth Sports Association (SSYSA). SSYSA is already holding football clinics in Konyokonyo and Muniki areas of Juba in which young boys are coached. It is envisaged that superior players will emerge from these dusty make-shift football fields in both the short and long term. In recognition of these efforts with youth football, the country recently hosted the CECAFA youth football competitions. Barely a month earlier, it had also hosted the larger East African Schools Sports tournaments.

Humanitarian situation

Southern Sudan is acknowledged to have some of the worst health indicators in the world. The under-five infant mortality rate is 112 per 1,000, whilst maternal mortality is the highest in the world at 2,053.9 per 100,000 live births. In 2004, there were only three surgeons serving southern Sudan, with three proper hospitals, and in some areas there was just one doctor for every 500,000 people.

The epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in the Southern Sudan is poorly documented but the prevalence is thought to be around 3.1%.

At the time of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005, humanitarian needs in Southern Sudan were massive. However, humanitarian organizations under the leadership of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) managed to ensure sufficient funding to bring relief to the local populations. Along with recovery and development aid, humanitarian projects were included in the 2007 Work Plan of the United Nations and partners. More than 90% of the population of South Sudan live on less than $1 a day, despite the GDP per capita of the entirety of Sudan being $1200.

In 2007, the OCHA (under the leadership of Éliane Duthoit) decreased its involvement in Southern Sudan, as humanitarian needs gradually diminished, slowly but markedly turning over control to the recovery and development activities of NGOs and community-based organisations.

See also

• Southern Sudan Autonomous Region, the autonomous government that existed between 1972 and 1983.
• Salva Kiir Mayardit
• Sudan
• John Garang de Mabior

Further reading

• Biel, Melha Rout (2007). South Sudan after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Jena: Netzbandt Verlag. ISBN 9783937884011.
• Tvedt, Terje (2004). South Sudan. An Annotated Bibliography. (2 vols), 2nd. ed., IB Tauris: London/New York

External links

Government

• Government of Southern Sudan
• Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly
• Ministry of Evironment, Tourism and Wildlife Conservation
• Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Supplies
• Ministry of Regional Cooperation

Missions

• Government of Southern Sudan – USA and UN Mission
• Government of Southern Sudan – UK Mission
• Government of Southern Sudan – South Africa Mission

Political parties

• SPLM Official Site
• South Sudan Liberal Party Official Site
• HELP Sudan International