South Sudan: From Independence to Civil War

Ten years after gaining independence from Khartoum, South Sudan is failing. A 2018 peace agreement has reduced fighting between the main warring parties in a country devastated by civil war and led to the formation of a unity government in 2020. But an insurgency continues unabated in the southern part of the country, and localised violence is rampant in much of the rest. Most provisions of the peace deal – like the unification of rebel and government forces into the national army – have not been implemented, while the ethno-political tensions that lie at the heart of the conflict are still running high.

Starting with Sudan’s independence from Britain and Egypt, and going through South Sudan’s independence referendum and the start of the new country’s civil war in 2013, this timeline tracks the events that have led to the current quagmire.