South Sudan
The world's youngest nation, born of the Nile and long war
South Sudan is the world's newest country, having split from Sudan in 2011 after one of Africa's longest civil wars. Landlocked in the heart of the continent, it is defined by the White Nile, which threads through a vast seasonal wetland, the Sudd, one of the largest swamps on Earth. Rich in oil but desperately poor in infrastructure, the young nation has struggled through renewed internal conflict and recurring crises. Its peoples, among them the Dinka and Nuer, sustain ancient cattle-herding traditions across some of Africa's last great open grasslands and wildlife migrations.
Most of the country is a low-lying clay plain crossed by the White Nile and its tributaries, which spill out each rainy season to form the Sudd, a labyrinth of reeds and channels that swallows much of the river's flow to evaporation. The land rises toward the south and east, reaching the Imatong Mountains and Mount Kinyeti, the highest point at 3,187 meters, near the Ugandan border. Tropical grassland and forest support enormous herds of antelope, including the white-eared kob, whose migration rivals the Serengeti's. The climate is hot, with a pronounced wet and dry season.
The largely Christian and animist south was long marginalized by the Arab-Muslim north, and the grievance fueled two prolonged civil wars against Khartoum that together lasted decades and killed millions. A 2005 peace deal led to a referendum in which southerners voted overwhelmingly to secede, and independence was declared on 9 July 2011 with Juba as capital. Hopes were quickly dashed when a power struggle erupted into a devastating civil war in 2013, displacing millions before a fragile peace took hold. The economy rests almost entirely on oil, and English is the official language across a society of many ethnic groups and tongues.