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1 1 (July 28, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/goveiiv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congr ssional Research SerVic inhoin m h ea itv debate ic 1914 Updated July 28, 2022 South Sudan Peace has been elusive in South Sudan, which became the world's newest country in 2011. The civil war that erupted there in late 2013 featured widespread sexual violence, mass killings, and other atrocities. It displaced over a third of the population, creating what is still Africa's largest refugee crisis. More than 2 million people who fled to neighboring countries remain refugees. Another 2 million are displaced internally. By one study, nearly 400,000 died as a result of the war before the latest peace deal was signed in 2018. The ongoing crisis has prompted congressional action, including, most recently, S.Res. 473 and S.Res. 380. Whether the peace deal ended the war is debated. A cease- fire between the main signatories has largely held, but gains under the agreement are tenuous, and an insurgency in the southern Equatoria region continues. Communal violence, often tied to national political rivalries, has surged. The protracted humanitarian crisis is worsening: over two-thirds of the population-almost 9 million people, half of them children-are estimated to need aid. Facing multiple shocks and recurrent violence, much of the population have exhausted local coping mechanisms. Facing competing donor funding priorities and rising costs, aid agencies have had to reduce food aid, despite unprecedented need. The International Crisis Group says the country is failing, and warns that conflict will continue until its leaders agree to broaden the peace deal and devolve power more widely. UN experts assess that rather than breaking the violent cycle of elite political bargaining, the deal has become part of it. South Sudan is at a tipping point, UN human rights monitors caution. Elections have not been held since independence, and plans for polls in 2023 risk fueling polarization. South Sudan ranks at the bottom of Freedom House's Global Freedom index, and there is little space for dissent. Security forces have mutilated, tortured, beat, and harassed political opponents, journalists, and human rights workers, per the State Department, and killed government critics in politically motivated reprisals. The top UN official in South Sudan told the UN Security Council in June that the window for meeting key benchmarks in the transitional period-scheduled to end in February 2023-is closing. The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), currently the world's largest UN peacekeeping mission, remains focused on protecting civilians, facilitating aid delivery, monitoring abuses, and supporting implementation of the peace deal. Background and Context South Sudan's independence followed a vote for secession, after almost 40 years of rebellion against Sudan's government. That war inhibited the development of basic infrastructure, human capital, and formal institutions in the south. Humanitarian needs persisted after independence, despite rich natural resources, including oil fields that once generated 75% of Sudan's oil production. South Sudan's leaders, former rebels, had little experience in governing, and corruption slowed post-war recovery and development. Source: CKS map. Facts trom CIA and IMl reference databases. South Sudan's subsequent conflict reflected tensions among leaders and ethnic groups that date back to Sudan's civil war. While that conflict is often described as a north-south struggle, infighting among southern rebel commanders in the 1990s nearly derailed the south's self-determination bid. Leaders in the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/ SPLA) competing for power mobilized supporters along ethnic lines. All sides committed atrocities. Sudan's government fueled SPLM divisions by financing breakaway factions. The factions reconciled in the early 2000s, before the government and SPLM signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005. After the CPA, the SPLM became the south's ruling party. With SPLM leader John Garang's death just months after the CPA signing, the south lost its leading advocate for a united Sudan, and in 2011 over 98% of southern Sudanese voted to secede. The new country was awash in small arms, and local ethnic violence became increasingly politicized. Maneuvering ahead of elections planned for 2015 added to these dynamics. Work on a new constitution stalled, and a 2013 cabinet reshuffle, in which President Salva Kiir dismissed his vice president, Riek Machar, formalized a major fissure in the SPLM. Tensions rose as Machar and others accused Kiir of becoming increasingly dictatorial and erupted in December 2013, as the party convened to vote on whether Kiir would be their presidential candidate. The CMi War The political dispute that triggered the crisis in late 2013 was not based on ethnic identity, but it overlapped with existing ethnic and political grievances, spurring targeted ethnic killings and clashes in the capital, and then beyond. What began as a fight among the presidential guard ultimately split the military, largely along ethnic lines. Kiir accused Machar of attempting a coup. Hundreds died in attacks reportedly targeting Machar's Nuer ethnic group in Juba; and revenge attacks against Kiir's Dinka followed. Machar and several senior Nuer military commanders subsequently declared a rebellion. The ensuing war pitted government forces and ethnic militia loyal to Kiir against those aligned with Machar. Uganda provided initial military support to the government and facilitated its arms imports.

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