South Sudan

The international media have reported unvarnished an appalling series of events, portraying another African tragedy of epic proportion in the making. The Guardian described South Sudan as ‘the state that fell apart in a week’. What readers glean from these reports is an inter-ethnic conflict between Dinka and Nuer.

The ethnic dimension to the conflict is undeniable: in the capital, Juba, as reported, elements of the presidential guard, the Tiger battalion of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), killed hundreds of Nuer, producing a backlash in the form of Koung, Gadet and Lou Nuer targeting Dinkas in Bentiu, Bor and Akobo. But this overlooks the political factors at root of the conflict, too easily misread as just yet-another-ethnic-war-in-Africa. 

openDemocracy: South Sudan: explaining the violence, December 29, 2013

BBC News: South Sudan crisis: Voices from Juba, December 20, 2013
NY Times: Political Strife in South Sudan Sets Off Ethnic Violence, December 21, 2013
openDemocracy: South Sudan: grim legacy of neglect, December 22, 2013
The Guardian: South Sudan: the state that fell apart in a week, December 23, 2013
The Washington Post: The world’s newest country is already on the brink of civil war. Here’s how it happened., December 23, 2013
The Guardian: South Sudan government agrees to ceasefire as 120,000 flee fighting, December 27, 2013
The Guardian: Eyewitness: Juba, South Sudan, December 28, 2013