Nation Building in South Sudan

South Sudan is Africa’s newest state born in July 2011 out of the larger Sudan after many years of a protracted civil war. Since independence in 1956 Southerners fought a relentless war to right historical injustices and wrongs of marginalization and subjugation by the Arab Muslim North. Regional actors negotiated a brief period of peace (1972-1983) which did not last because of the imposition of Islamic law by the Sudan government infuriating the predominantly Christian Southerners. The war ended in 2005 with another regionally-mediated Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which prepared the South for a referendum to determine either secession or continued unity with the North. The referendum in January 2011 was a resounding victory for self-determination preparing the ground for independence. Since the separation Sudan and South Sudan have struggled to negotiate a wide range of bilateral agreements against the backdrop of border skirmishes and mutual recriminations.