South Sudan joins the world.

[PointTracker]

As of November 2011, there are 196 countries in the world. A few months back, this number was 195. Welcome to The Republic of South Sudan.

South Sudan is now an independent country of its own, officially separate from the Sudan. A whopping 98.83% of the almost 4 million voters voted 'Yes' for South Sudan to break away from its northern counterpart.

Why?

The Sudan was (before the South's independence) the largest country in the continent of Africa. First, it helps to know that the population of the Sudan was composed of 50% describing themselves as 'black' or 'African' in the south, and 40% as Arabs in the north.

Colonialism - late 1800s
Enter the colonial era. In 1899, Britain and Egypt took joint control of the country. Egypt controlled the North, notably where the capital of the country, Khartoum, was located, and pushed for the spread of Islam and Islamic values throughout the region. In contrast, in the south, the British tried to tame the spread of Islam and instead encouraged Christian missionaries to promote the English language. It even came to the point where the two 'provinces' were so sttrictly separated, that a passport was required for travel between each region; even a permit would be required to conduct business that flowed over the border. Roughly five decades of this created a real separation of boundaries which did not exist before the colonial era. After the second World War (so, after 1945), the British began pulling out of the Sudan as the colonial era came to an end, and glued the two broken pieces of the Sudan back together. However - and this is important - they handed power of the country over to the Northern forces. At this point, the separation of North and South represents more than just a geographical split; the 'Arab North' was trained in Arabic, characterized by an Islamic system, and it identified with the Arab world to its north. The South was trained in English, held Christianity as its official religion, and had ties with Kenya, Uganda and other sub-Saharan countries to its south. From here on out, power was hoarded in the North, specifically in Khartoum, while the rest of the country suffered in all directions (including Darfur to the west, to be written about later).

Independence - 1956
Civil war between North and South did not take long to arrive; in fact, it began in the year before independence was achieved. Weak attempts by mutineers and students to create an insurgency movement finally turned into the Anyanya ("snake venom" in the local Madi language) which was a separatist rebel movement targetting the Northern government. Meanwhile, the Northern government was seized in a coup d'etat by a man named General Ibrahim Abboud. Abboud eliminated political opposition and undertook an effort to "Islamize the south through violent proselytization" ('proselytism' in this context is the act of attempting to convert someone to another religion, by force). The conflict turned into a full blown civil war, and was affected by the spillover of international affairs. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union heavily supported Khartoum and the North in their efforts to suppress the South, while the Anyanya drew aid from neighboring countries such as Israel, Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia to stem the North.

After years of failed attempts to rule the nation by different governments, in 1969, General Jaafar al-Nimeiri finally took control of the nation by force with the assistance of his army. Al-Nimeiri banned political opposition and nationalized many industries, businesses and banks in an effort to push the Sudan towards becoming a socialist state. However, by 1971, Soviet-Sudan relations took a turn for the worse and the country's relationship with the United States and Western Europe improved. Al-Nimeiri's government and the Anyanya ratified the Addis Ababa peace agreement which split power and wealth between the North and the South, for example by granting the South its own regional President, making English the official language of the South, and granting qualified Anyanya veterans an equal presence in the Southern command of the Sudanese army.

While it looked like peace had been achieved between North and South, trouble was brewing on the horizon. An 'Islamist' movement led by a man named Sadiq al-Mahdi (a former Sudanese Prime Minister) created an opposition party to Al-Nimeiri's government, aiming to reinstall an Islamic, conservative Sudan that would not tolerate the agreements made with the non-Arab, English South (listed above). It led a failed coup attempt in 1976, but the momentum of the Islamist movement was still taking its toll on Al-Nimeiri's government. Opposition leaders who were once exiled, like al-Mahdi, were allowed to return to Sudan, along with members of the Muslim Brotherhood who (in this context) were a radical fundamentalist organization. Al-Nimeiri's once tolerant pro-democratic stance was sacrificed for a position that would keep him in power, obviously at the cost of the will of the people of Sudan. 

Back to basics - late 1970's to early 1980's
Al-Nimeiri replaced government posts held by Southerners, who were granted these powers under the Addis Ababa agreement, with Muslim Northerners. When oil was discovered in the South, al-Nimeiri replaced Southern troops guarding significant oil deposits with Northern troops. And in 1983, al-Nimeiri instituted what became known as the September Laws; these proclaimed Shari'ah as the basis of the Sudanese legal system and were hugely resented by the South (and even conservative Muslims) for how dictatorial and irrational they were. While the South became frustrated with their loss of power, the North became weary of the South's presence in the Sudanese army. Al-Nimeiri ordered the Southern troops to abandon their weapons and head North; their refusal was considered insubordination (basically, the act of defying authority), and Al-Nimeiri ordered an attack on them. The Addis Ababa agreement was formally declared invalid (annulled) . Civil war was back. 

Hell on Earth - 1980's to 2005
The betrayed Southerners fled to Sudan's neighbor, Ethiopia, where they formed the Sudan People's Liberation Army, and were led by the charismatic John Garang, a man who envisioned not an independent south, but a democratic, respectful Sudan. Garang and the SPLA took control of most of southern Sudan while fending off the North, which was by 1986 in control of Al-Nimeiri's successor, Al-Mahdi. Al-Mahdi, back in the game, attempted to form a coalition government, but disagreement between the parties plunged the political situation of the Sudan back into dire straits. One of the parties of the coalition, the National Islamic Front (NIF), would not accept anything less than a fully Islamic state governed by Shari'ah. Sure enough, the NIF, led by Brigadier General Omar Hassan al-Bashir took the government in a military coup. The Bashir government was particularly violent - anyone deemed to be against the government in any capacity was subject to being imprisoned in 'ghost houses'; empty cells, blindfolded, where one is cuffed to the door, beaten constantly, and forced to stand.The government was as strategic was it was brutal, however. Cheadle and Prendergast put it best: "rebels are less effective in fighting a civil war with Khartoum if they are fighting among themselves". Al-Bashir trained, equipped and gave total impunity to the Nuer tribe. The Nuer are the historical rivals of the Dinka tribe, and the Dinka comprised the main arm of Garang's SPLA. This created a "war within a war", seriously damaging the SPLA socially and economically. The Al-Bashir regime also armed and sheltered the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group based in northern Uganda (which borders southern Sudan). The LRA is known for its particularly gruesome tactics, including cutting victims' faces and raping young children. The government also engaged a neo-slave trade, where government-backed militias would raid villages in the south, abducting people after killing and raping others, then selling them at camps to Northerners and foreigners. An estimed 12,000 people are the victims of this 'business'. The destruction of villages also led to massive famine situations, which killed 300,000 people between 1992 and 1993 in only one region alone in southern Sudan. Further, Khartoum's claim to oil discovered in the South had kept the al-Bashir regime laughing its way to the bank.

The civil war between 1983 and 2005 killed 1.5 million people and displaced 4 million Southerners. 2005 finally marked a peace agreement that was pushed for and supported by a once-spectating, now heavily involved international community. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement called "for a six year interim period with democratic elections by 2009, and an autonomous southern government, followed by a self-determination referendum for the South." The rest, quite literally, is history.

Today
So the tale of two Sudans is marked by a history of greed and violence, typical to many of the histories of countries in Africa. Though the birth of South Sudan is both a necessary compromise and a victory for its people, it should not indicate that there is peace and prosperity in the region. To the contrary, tribal tensions between the Dinka and Nuer are still high and have resulted in massive human rights abuses, many committed by the SPLA which now forms the core of the South Sudan army. The new country has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. Infrastructure outside South Sudan's capital, Juba, remains inadequate. Abyei is one of the regions between the two countries that remains "up for grabs" - both countries have laid violent claim to it for its oil deposits - reminding us of other conflict points such as the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan, and the West Bank caught between Israel and Palestine.

Ponder:
* What's your take on South Sudan? Do you think secession was necessary to stop the violence that claimed so many lives?
* Where do you think the country will be in, say, 50 years time?

Works used for this article, and more information:
[Full Text - Comprehensive Peace Agreement 2005]
[UN Protection of Civilians - Sudan's CPA: The Long Road Ahead]
[UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - The Nimeiri Era]
[Al-Jazeera - Sudan split was 'over-simplified' by media]
[TIME- Can Sudan split without falling apart?]
[Southern Sudan: Abuses on Both Sides in Upper Nile Clashes]
[Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond. Don Cheadle and John Prendergast. 2007. Hyperion Books.]