S Sudan fingers still crossed a year after independence

Lillian Aluanga-Delvaux

South Sudan marks its first anniversary Monday July 9 against the backdrop of internal strife, economic and social hurdles, and national integration challenges.

A year ago, the John Garang Mausoleum – the venue of the independence celebrations – held thousands, whose frenzied celebrations marked a historic moment.


But while a celebratory mood will no doubt envelop the same venue Monday, it will be accompanied by some sobering truths of expectations that many South Sudanese nationals held 12 months ago.

Frosty relations with Khartoum, border disputes and intermittent conflicts in Jonglei, Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Unity State, are among challenges the new nation has had to contend with since independence.

A referendum that was to determine the status of the oil-rich Abyei province remains in abeyance, as are unresolved conflicts in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. A year after the birth of the world’s youngest nation, dozens are still stranded at borders, corruption stalks the new government, and months of a shutdown in oil exports from Juba to Khartoum is fanning economic hardship.

High inflation

The shutdown was occasioned by a dispute over transportation costs and is estimated to cost Juba losses of more than $30 million. It has led to the depreciation of the South Sudan Pound and a raising inflation rate of more than 70 per cent.

The past year has also seen longstanding hostilities between South Sudan and Sudan resurface. In April, a war of words between the two countries erupted over Heglig, an oil rich town in Southern Kordofan, which lies along a poorly defined border between the two States.

The spat led to a brief takeover of the oilfield, which is among Sudan’s biggest revenue sources, by South Sudan troops. While South Sudan claims the oil field falls within her territory, the North maintains that there was no clear border demarcation of the area at the time of the South’s independence.

In Abyei, an oil rich region at the centre of a territorial dispute between the two countries, thousands are beginning to trickle back home after being displaced in the wake of persistent raids by Sudan’s troops. The date of a referendum that was to be held in January last year to determine Abyei’s status remains indefinite, amid differences between Sudan and South Sudan on the extent of borders and eligibility of voters.

Besides territorial disputes between Khartoum and Juba, pockets of rebels continue to cause instability in parts of the country. South Sudan has maintained Khartoum is funding such groups, a claim Sudan denies. According to the United Nations Mission In South Sudan, more than 800 people were killed in Jonglei State alone between December 2011 and February.

In his book, The Birth of South Sudan, author James Shimanyula refers to the ‘ferocity of tribal fighting’ in Jonglei State and cites ‘skyrocketing dowry demands’ referred to by the State’s Governor Kuol Manyang Juuk’, as a catalyst to the conflicts. The troubled State has since witnessed the signing of an inter-communal peace deal in May.
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