Still a long way to go for peace in South Sudan! Millions of people have fled to neighboring Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia, fearing more bloodshed. While there has been no more fighting in the capital Juba since July 2016 – the month of madness and violence – the rebellion has slowly spread throughout the country. But a few days after Christmas, the date of starting of this cessation of hostilities, the agreement had already been broken more than a dozen times in several locations of the country by different rebel armed groups and the government. This makes more than a dozen agreements signed between them after the starting of this bloody civil war. In a last attempt to bring more stability and create space for dialogue, just before Christmas 2017, the government of South Sudan and nine rebel factions, with the mediation of InterGovenmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union (AU) and Troika, signed a new agreement for cessation of hostilities. Tribal fractures and difficulties have increased in the last two years, and today there are at least nine other major ethnic rebel groups in the country. The two major protagonists are the largest ethnic communities: the Dinka, the largest in numbers and the Nuer. These epochal events, aiming to unite the people have been completely undermined by the 2013 outbreak of a bloody inter-ethnic war that is still ongoing. In that year, there was the January 9-15 plebiscite referendum in favor of secession – 98.83 % of the citizens voted for independence! South Sudan got its independence on July 9, 2011, and became the 54th country in Africa and 193rd in the world. The resulting embryonic process of democratization peaked four years later in 2011. The result of these 38 years of war were more than 2.5 million people dead and the region of the South completely devastated, impoverished and without services and infrastructures. ![]() ![]() The religious presence was mixed with two large majorities, Animist and Christian and a minority 7-8% of Muslims –The gradual imposition of the Sharia law by the North resulted in two long wars – one of the longest in the world (1955-2005, with a short and fragile “peace” from 1973 to 1983) – which ended with agreements signed in Nairobi in 2005. Daniele Moschetti, Comboni MissionaryĪfter independence from Britain on January 1, 1956, the southern Sudan region mostly black remained united with the North of the Sudan which is Arab and Muslim.
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