The Crisis in South Sudan: A Means to an End

 The Crisis in South Sudan: A Means to an End

This report explores the past, current, and future issues that South Sudan has been plagued with. Primarily concerning itself over the violation and abuse of human rights and the country’s broken state. 

OVERVIEW: A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY 

    South Sudan, a nation that has never known true stability and peace, has become to be recognized by its plague of gangs, killings sprees, and violation of human rights. South Sudan has a long history of fighting wars, ultimately, now, fighting a war with itself, and drastically losing. The first Sudanese Civil War began in August of 1955 and ended in March of 1972, and began a year before Sudan claimed independence from Great Britain. The main goal of the civil war was for independence, or autonomy for the South, but ultimately diverged in reason when the second civil war began in May of 1983 aimed to restructure the central political institutions and diminish the growing power in marginalized parts of the country.

    The tensions between North and South Sudan played a key role in increasing the friction between the two regions of the country. The British and Egyptian colonization of past Sudan in 1805-99 split the country in half, culturally; the North began to have closer ties to the Muslim community and adopted speaking Arabic, whereas the South was a mixing pot of groups of African people who followed or converted to Christianity. “The internal divide within the country would soon begin to be recognized by the institutions that occupied Sudan, with the 1 British imposing measures such as the Closed Districts Act of 1925 that banned traders from the North, Muslim preachers from the South, Arab-style dress, and the use of the Arabic language in official government offices and schools.” (Encyclopedia) However, despite Britain taking great lengths and measures to prevent the Muslim culture of the North from leaking into the South, Britain left South Sudan an internal crumbling institution with education and economic development being left behind on the back burner. Now, the South was struggling to play catch-up to the North, who experienced far better economic and educational prosperity as opposed to their opponent. 

    With a long, bloody, dark history, and with 2.5 million deaths between the North and the South, a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in 2005 between the Sudanese government and Southern Sudan to end the Second Sudanese Civil War, share oil revenue amongst the two sides of the country, and develop democratic governance countrywide. Although this was a promising start to a new beginning for the country, the faults within the CPA began to shine. The CPA did not allow for the international community or sideline mediators to influence the internal political direction of the country, which grew to be the start of a very long downfall when the 2010 elections rolled around. The elections of 2010 created a space of tense, closely knit, and firmly controlled political powers in both the North and South due to Sudan’s leadership not being clearly defined or accepted as the leader of a genuine political process. After, serious internal turmoil, once again, in 2011, South Sudan secedes from Sudan, with an overwhelming majority of 98% of voters winning the vote, marking the start of a new and peaceful start, or so it was thought.

NOW: THE ISSUES FACED

    From 2013 to 2018, an uptick in ongoing violence within South Sudan lead to the South Sudan Civil War, beginning in 2013, facing a famine in 2017, and brokering a deal with the USIP (United States Institute for Peace) for two peace deals. As the peace deals were effective in the meantime, now, it seems that South Sudan has another ongoing crisis that is rapidly emerging and becoming a country that actively perpetrates crimes against humanity. 

 As South Sudan continues to struggle with an internal power imbalance, the aftershocks of food insecurity, and an uncertain future many are quick to turn to crime to solve problems, thus leading to conflict still on the rise. “At least 28 villages and settlements were affected during the clashes— with an estimated 173 civilians killed, 12 injured, and 37 women and children abducted. Many of the abductees were subjected to sexual violence, with a total of 131 cases of rape and gang rape documented, including girls as young as eight-years-old and a nine-year-old girl who was gang-raped to death. Approximately 44,000 civilians were displaced from at least 26 villages.” (United Nations) The level of trauma that South Sudan bleeds out is a cry for help and is one that should not be ignored.

 Even now, the most recent round of “horrific human rights violations and abuses, and was driven by the ferocity of national political competition and abetted by impunity for past violations…[and] one of the politicians alleged to be most responsible for the violations in southern Unity State in 2022 is the same individual implicated in violations, documented by Amnesty International, that were perpetrated in the same areas in 2018.” (Amnesty International) A government that ignores its own internal conflict has led to a significant rise to not only internal turmoil within the country but has drastically increased the violence the way that it is perpetrated, and its commonality, “the government does not want any scrutiny into what is 3 happening in the country.” (Tigere Chagutah) As the year continues, “South Sudan [still] remains in a serious humanitarian crisis. Some 9.4 million people, 76% of the population, are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023, an increase of half a million people compared to 2022. Women and children continue to be the most affected.” (The World Bank) 

PROGRESS: RECOMMENDATIONS

 Although there are plenty of solutions that may be used to potentially battle the ongoing conflict within South Sudan, plenty of which may not be as effective as others, one plan is proposed with multiple steps to combat the multi-layer issues. "These include implementing security agreements, such as uniting rebel and government forces into a single national army and setting up security in Juba to permit the exiled former vice president Riek Machar to return to South Sudan without incident.” (Quarcoo, 18-19) However, the biggest boost to solving these issues would be a breakthrough in the question of states and their boundaries, although this is no small feat for the parties and international mediation teams, careful mediation and consideration will play a crucial role as the longer that the process continues to stall, “the higher the stakes of returning to violence becomes.” (Quarcoo, 19) The following four points are key points to keep in mind as to what should be accomplished to return South Sudan to stability.

● “Address the gendered impact of the conflict-driven food crisis, in consultation with civil society.” (Dowd, Kumalo 1)
● “Prioritise security sector reform with a clear human security focus.” (Dowd, Kumalo 1)
● “Support initiatives that recognize that peacebuilding is a long-term investment requiring predictable and flexible support for community-led activities.” (Dowd, Kumalo 1)
● “Support approaches that strengthen livelihoods and provide coherence in the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.” (Dowd, Kumalo 1)

ROLE: CHINA 

    As someone who is Africa’s leading trading partner and largest creditor, working with an intent to give back to a society that largely profits from China in return for more trading investment and revenue is a promise that Africa can make. (Krippahl 1) China has made serious investments in some parts of Africa already, some of which receive more than $500 million dollars (USD), while others receive little to none. Having already invested a significant amount of funds into Africa, continuing to bolster efforts to soothe South Sudan’s inner conflicts can only bring more prosperity to the nation of China as South Sudan is not only rich in natural resources such as oil, gold, diamonds, silver, various ores, fertile land, as well as, various species of wild animals. (BMZ, 1) Investing into the treatment of the ails of South Sudan so that South Sudan can become a more stable country, one in which the “state can provide basic security, national and subnational institutions are restored and funded, the government is enabled to provide political settlements of disputes, and in which civil society exists and are empowered,” (USIP 5-8) is a large investment that will pay off largely in the long run. Once the country is powered, a multitude of workers, resources, and culture will be at China’s fingertips to exchange information with.

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