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1 [1] (May 9, 2025)

handle is hein.crs/suhsdan0001 and id is 1 raw text is: sa Congressional Research Service Inforrning the legislative debate since 1914 South Sudan Peace has been elusive in South Sudan, which, with U.S. support, 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 and fueled Africa's largest refugee crisis for a decade. An estimated 400,000 people died as a result of the war before the most recent peace deal was signed in 2018. Whether that ended the war is debated. Conflict has continued to plague the country, and the situation is deteriorating in 2025 as hostilities rise. South Sudan ranks as one of the world's poorest and most fragile states, the most corrupt, and one of the least free. Its security forces have mutilated, tortured, beat, and harassed political opponents, journalists, and human rights activists, per the State Department, and targeted government critics outside the country. President Salva Kiir's government has repeatedly delayed what would be the first elections since independence. Kiir's regime arrested First Vice President Riek Machar, his leading rival and co-signatory on the 2018 peace deal, in March, accusing him of inciting rebellion. The United States, which facilitated the 2005 peace deal that enabled South Sudan's independence from Sudan, has been the country's largest aid donor and the penholder on the issue in the UN Security Council. Congressional interest, driven historically by humanitarian and human rights concerns, has shaped U.S. policy toward what is now South Sudan for decades. The U.S. Embassy continues to press for implementation of the peace deal and has called for Machar's release and a return to dialogue. Humanitarian Situation South Sudan faces a severe humanitarian crisis that has grown over the past decade: per UN estimates, 9.3 million people (three-quarters of the population) need aid in 2025; 7.7 million face acute food insecurity. Over 1.8 million are internally displaced; 2.3 million are refugees in neighboring countries. Widespread flooding since 2019 has added to displacement and food insecurity. South Sudan ranks as one of the countries most vulnerable to natural hazards and climate change impacts and as one of the most dangerous countries for aid workers. Sudan overtook South Sudan as Africa's largest refugee crisis in 2024; South Sudan has faced an influx of over a million refugees and returnees from Sudan, straining communities and aid operations. Competing donor priorities and increasing costs have led to humanitarian funding gaps since 2020, forcing aid agencies to reduce assistance amid rising needs. U.S. assistance has routinely comprised over half of all humanitarian funding for South Sudan. The Trump Administration's foreign aid pause and cuts, which have drawn congressional debate, have reportedly disrupted some life-saving programs; Save the Children has cited them as a factor in several deaths. The State Department says that the United States continues to provide critical, life-saving assistance in South Sudan. Updated May 9, 2025 F Source: CRS map. Figures from CIA and IMF reference databases. Background and Context South Sudan's independence followed a vote for secession from Sudan after almost 40 years of rebellion. Decades of war had inhibited the development of human capital, basic infrastructure, and formal institutions, fueling humanitarian needs that persisted after independence, despite rich natural resources, including oil fields that once generated 75% of Sudan's oil production. As former rebels, South Sudan's leaders had little experience governing, and corruption and conflict slowed post-war recovery and development. The civil war in Sudan that led to South Sudan's secession is often characterized as a north-south struggle, but fighting among southern rebel commanders nearly derailed the south's bid for self-determination. Leaders in the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/SPLA) vying for power mobilized their supporters along ethnic lines, and Sudan's government fueled SPLM divisions by financing breakaway factions (a tactic Kiir has adopted). The rebel factions reconciled in the early 2000s, helping the SPLM form a united front in peace talks with Sudan's government, culminating in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Under the CPA, Sudan remained unified for a six- year interim period before southerners voted on separation. After the CPA, the SPLM became the south's ruling party. With the death of longtime SPLM leader John Garang just months after the CPA signing, the south lost its leading advocate for a united Sudan, and in 2011, over 98% of its voters chose secession. The new country was awash in small arms, and grievances fueled local rebellions and intercommunal violence. The SPLA, which became South Sudan's army, responded with violent, ethnically targeted disarmament campaigns. Maneuvering ahead of the first post-independence elections planned for 2015 added to these dynamics. A 2013 cabinet reshuffle, in which Kiir dismissed his vice president, Riek Machar, formalized a major fissure in the SPLM. Tensions rose as Machar and other SPLM leaders accused Kiir of becoming increasingly dictatorial, and erupted in December 2013, as the party convened to choose its presidential candidate for the polls.

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