9 July 2011: South Sudan becomes an independent state
On 9 July 2011 South Sudan achieved independence as a nation state after a six-year peace process.
South Sudan independence © ENOUGH project
The split from the northern part of Sudan came after a long period of marginalisation and persecution of the South Sudanese population by the Sudanese Government in Khartoum. Across the world, the new nation’s passage into statehood was welcomed with both hope and caution as the region continues to be destabilised by ongoing conflict.
Support for independence among the South Sudanese was exceptionally high, due to the devastating civil wars between the north and south of Sudan in the second half of the twentieth century. An estimated 2 million people died during the Second Sudanese Civil War and southern regions were devastated by indiscriminate aerial bombing and violent raids upon civilian populations.
The civil war was ended by a peace agreement in 2005 which created the road for South Sudanese independence in 2011. It was under the cover of negotiations for this peace agreement between the north and the south that Sudanese authorities in Khartoum turned their attention to Darfur in 2003. As global diplomacy focused on securing peace between the south and north, the Sudanese government carried out a genocide against the Black African population of Darfur, a western region which remains part of Sudan today.
Since the independence of South Sudan, a new crisis has emerged in the South Kordofan region which borders South Sudan and Sudan. The area has faced heavy military attack from Sudanese Government forces and regular reports from the region suggest that civilians are being deliberately targeted.
Despite the signing of a resolution aimed at resolving the conflict in August 2015, violence continues to affect civilians in all ten states, compounded by other humanitarian threats such as economic decline, disease and climactic shocks.
In 2023, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted to establish a mechanism tasked with investigating human rights violations in Sudan. More than half a million Sudanese refugees and returnees from South Sudan have registered in South Sudan since the start of the Sudan crisis in April 2023.
