South Sudan

This article is about the sovereign country established in 2011. For similarly named topics, see Southern Sudan (disambiguation).
"RoSS" redirects here. For other uses, see Ross.

Republic of South Sudan
Motto: "Justice, Liberty, Prosperity"
Anthem: "South Sudan Oyee!"
South Sudan in dark green, territory claimed but not fully controlled in light green
South Sudan in dark green, territory claimed but not fully controlled in light green
Capital
and largest city
Juba
04°51′N 31°36′E / 4.850°N 31.600°E / 4.850; 31.600
Official languagesEnglish[1]
Recognised national languages
and around 60 other languages[note 1]
Spoken languages[3]
Religion
(2020)[8][9]
Demonym(s)South Sudanese
GovernmentFederal presidential republic under a provisional government
• President
Salva Kiir Mayardit
Riek Machar
• Speaker
Jemma Nunu Kumba
Chan Reec Madut
LegislatureTransitional National Legislature
• Upper house
Transitional Council of States
• Lower house
Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly
Independence 
from Sudan
• Autonomy
9 July 2005
9 July 2011
Area
• Total
619,745[8][10] km2 (239,285 sq mi) (41st)
Population
• 2024 estimate
12,703,714[8] (80th)
• Density
13.33/km2 (34.5/sq mi) (214th)
GDP (PPP)2022 estimate
• Total
Decrease$13.6 billion [10] (157th)
• Per capita
Decrease$934[10] (191st)
GDP (nominal)2022 estimate
• Total
Decrease$4.7 billion [10] (164th)
• Per capita
Decrease $326[10] (194th)
Gini (2016)Positive decrease 44.1[11]
medium inequality
HDI (2022)Steady 0.381[12]
low (192nd)
CurrencySouth Sudanese pound (SSP)
Time zoneUTC+2 (Central Africa Time)
Drives onright[13]
Calling code+211[14]
ISO 3166 codeSS
Internet TLD.ss[15]a
  1. Registered and operational since 2019.

South Sudan (/suːˈdɑːn, -ˈdæn/), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa.[16] It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the west by Central African Republic. South Sudan's diverse landscape includes vast plains and plateaus, dry and tropical savannahs, inland floodplains, and forested mountains. The Nile River system is the defining physical feature of the country, running south to north across its center, which is dominated by a large swamp known as the Sudd. South Sudan has a population of 12.7 million. Juba is the capital and largest city.[8]

Sudan was occupied by Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty and governed as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium until Sudanese independence in 1956. Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon broke out in 1983 and ended in 2005 with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed. South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011, following 98.8% support for independence in a January 2011 referendum and is the most recent country to be formed.[17][18] It is the most recent sovereign state with widespread recognition as of 2024.[19]

South Sudan descended into a civil war from 2013 to 2020, enduring rampant human rights abuses, including forced displacement, ethnic massacres, and killings of journalists by various parties. It has since been governed by a coalition formed by leaders of the former warring factions, Salva Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar.[20] The country continues to recover from the war while experiencing ongoing and systemic ethnic violence.[21]

The South Sudanese population is composed mostly of Nilotic peoples spanning a variety of ethnic, tribal, and linguistic groups. It is demographically among the youngest nations in the world, with roughly half its people under 18 years old.[22] The majority of inhabitants adhere to Christianity or various traditional indigenous faiths, with a sizeable Muslim minority.

South Sudan is a member of the United Nations,[23][24] African Union,[25] East African Community,[26] and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.[27] It is one of the least developed countries in the world, ranking second to last in the Human Development Index, ahead of only Somalia, and having the fourth-lowest nominal GDP per capita, after Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Burundi.[28]

  1. ^ "The Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, 2011". Government of South Sudan. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2011. Part One, 6(2). "English shall be the official working language in the Republic of South Sudan".
  2. ^ "The Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, 2011" (PDF). Government of South Sudan. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  3. ^ Ethnologue: Ethnologue Languages of the World – South Sudan Archived 9 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  4. ^ United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF): The impact of language policy and practice on children's learning: Evidence from Eastern and Southern Africa 2016 Archived 13 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine (PDF; 672 kB), Pages 1–3, Retrieved 9 September 2018
  5. ^ Manfredi, Stefano (2018). "Juba Arabic (Árabi Júba): a "less indigenous" language of South Sudan" (PDF). Sociolinguistic Studies. 12 (1): 209–230. doi:10.1558/sols.35596. hdl:2318/1702685. ISSN 1750-8657. S2CID 150503108. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 May 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  6. ^ Manfredi Stefano; Tosco Mauro (2016), A new state, an old language policy, and a pidgin-creolo: Juba Arabic in South Sudan, Forthcoming: Sociolinguistic Studies 2016 Archived 1 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine (PDF; 1141 kB), Pages 1–18, Retrieved 9 September 2018
  7. ^ Manfredi Stefano; Tosco Mauro (2013), Language uses vs. language policy: South Sudan and Juba Arabic in the post-independence era Archived 9 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine (PDF; 301 kB), Pages 798–802, III Congresso Coordinamento Universitario per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo, Sep 2013, Turin, Italy. JUNCO, Journal of Universities and International Development Cooperation, 2014, Imagining Cultures of Cooperation – Proceedings of the III CUCS Congress, Turin 19–21 September 2013, Retrieved 9 September 2018
  8. ^ a b c d "South Sudan". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  9. ^ "South Sudan". Global Religious Futures. Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on 2 December 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  10. ^ a b c d e "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2022". International Monetary Fund. October 2022. Archived from the original on 24 October 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  11. ^ "Gini Index". World Bank. Archived from the original on 11 May 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  12. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Traffic and Road Conditions in Sudan, South". Countryreports.org. Archived from the original on 21 January 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  14. ^ "New country, new number: Country code 211 officially assigned to South Sudan" (Press release). International Telecommunication Union. 14 July 2011. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  15. ^ ".ss Domain Delegation Data". ICANN. Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
  16. ^ "South Sudan joins list of least developed countries, bringing global total to 49". UNCTAD. 26 December 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
  17. ^ "Broadcast of Declaration of Independence (part 1)". 10 July 2011. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013 – via YouTube.
  18. ^ "Broadcast of Declaration of Independence (part 2)". 19 June 2011. Archived from the original on 7 July 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013 – via YouTube.
  19. ^ "The World's Youngest Countries". WorldAtlas. 28 May 2018. Archived from the original on 30 November 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  20. ^ "South Sudan rivals strike power-sharing deal". BBC News. 22 February 2020. Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  21. ^ Malak, Garang A. (22 February 2020). "Trust issues persist in Juba despite new dawn". The East African. Archived from the original on 22 June 2020. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  22. ^ "'Children's crisis' in South Sudan must be addressed, says top UN official calling for real accountability". 7 September 2018. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
  23. ^ Worsnip, Patrick (14 July 2011). "South Sudan admitted to U.N. as 193rd member". Reuters. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
  24. ^ "UN welcomes South Sudan as 193rd Member State". United Nations News Service. 14 July 2011. Archived from the original on 3 August 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  25. ^ "South Sudan Becomes African Union's 54th Member". Voice of America News. 28 July 2011. Archived from the original on 16 September 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
  26. ^ "South Sudan admitted into EAC", Daily Nation, 2 March 2016, reprinted at nation.co.ke, accessed 4 March 2016
  27. ^ "Ethiopia Agrees to Back Somalia Army Operations, IGAD Says". Bloomberg Businessweek. 25 November 2011. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  28. ^ "GDP per capita, current prices". IMF. Archived from the original on 14 November 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2023.


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).