The South Sudanese Civil War was a multi-sided civil war in South Sudan fought from 2013 to 2018 between government and opposition forces. The civil war caused rampant human rights abuses, including forced displacement, ethnic massacres, and killings of journalists by various parties. Since the war's end, South Sudan has been governed by a coalition formed by leaders of the former warring factions, Salva Kiir and Riek Machar. The country continues to recover from the war while experiencing ongoing and systemic ethnic violence.
In December 2013, President Kiir accused his former deputy Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup d'état. Machar denied trying to start a coup and fled to lead the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO). Fighting broke out between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and SPLM-IO, igniting the civil war. Ugandan troops were deployed to fight alongside the South Sudanese government. The United Nations has peacekeepers in the country as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
In January 2014, the first ceasefire agreement was reached. Fighting continued and was followed by several more ceasefire agreements. Negotiations were mediated by IGAD, the African Union, the United Nations, China, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and Norway; the "Compromise Peace Agreement" was signed in August 2015. Machar returned to Juba in 2016 and was appointed vice president. Following a second breakout of fighting within Juba, the SPLM-IO fled to the surrounding and previously peaceful Equatoria region. Kiir replaced Machar as First Vice President with Taban Deng Gai, splitting the opposition, and rebel in-fighting became a major part of the conflict. A rivalry between the President and the former army chief Paul Malong Awan also led to fighting. In August 2018, a ceasefire came into effect, and on 12 September 2018 the war officially ended with the signing of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS). On 22 February 2020, rivals Kiir and Machar struck a unity deal and formed a coalition government.
By April 2018, it was estimated that about 400,000 people, 10.6% of which were children, had been killed in the war. This death toll includes notable atrocities, such as the 2013 Nuer massacre and the 2014 Bentiu massacre. Although both parties otherwise had supporters from across South Sudan's ethnic divides, there were strong tensions between the Dinka and Nuer, which were often violent. Kiir's Dinka ethnic group has been accused of attacking other ethnic groups and Machar's Nuer ethnic group has been accused of attacking the Dinka. More than 4 million people have been displaced, with about 1.8 million of those internally displaced, and about 2.5 million having fled to neighboring countries, especially Uganda and Sudan. Fighting in the agricultural heartland in the south of the country caused the number of people facing starvation to soar to 6 million, leading to the 2017 famine. The country's economy has also been devastated. In October 2017, the IMF reported that real income had halved since 2013 and inflation was more than 300% per annum.
Background
Previous rebellions
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed on 9 January 2005 between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Government of Sudan ended the Second Sudanese Civil War, which had started in 1983. Under the terms of the peace agreement, a Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was created and run by the SPLM with a promise that a referendum on independence would be held in 2011. During the six years period of autonomy, the desire for independence kept in-fighting within the SPLM in check. One consequence of the war's end was the oil fields in southern Sudan could be developed far more extensively than was possible during the war. Between 2006 and 2009, sales of oil brought in an annual average of US$2.1 billion to the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region. Disputes between leading personalities in the SPLM over how to appropriate the oil revenue led to recurring tensions. A system emerged during the autonomous period where SPLM leaders used the wealth generated by the oil to buy the loyalty of not only the troops, but the people at large, creating intense competition to control the oil.
In 2010, after a disputed election, George Athor led the South Sudan Democratic Movement in rebellion against the government. The same year, a faction of the South Sudan Democratic Movement, called the Cobra Faction, led by David Yau Yau rebelled against the government, accusing them of being prejudiced against the Murle. His faction signed a cease-fire with the government in 2011 and his militia was reintegrated into the army but he defected again in 2012. After the army's 2010 disarmament campaign which saw widespread abuses against the Shilluk people, John Uliny of the Shilluk people began a rebellion, leading the Upper Nile faction of the South Sudan Democratic Movement. Gabriel Tang, who led a militia allied to Khartoum during the Second Sudanese Civil War, clashed regularly with the SPLA until 2011 when his soldiers were reintegrated into the national army. In 2011, Peter Gadet led a rebellion with the South Sudan Liberation Army, but was reintegrated into the army the same year. Former rebellious militias were recruited into the South Sudan Liberation Army, a policy which has been described as "bad culture" and an incentive to rebel.
During the 2011 referendum 98% of voters voted in favour of independence, with South Sudan becoming an independent state on 9 July 2011.
President consolidates power
After rumors about a planned coup surfaced in Juba in late 2012, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir began to reorganize the senior leadership of his government,party, and military at an unprecedented scale. In January 2013, Kiir replaced the inspector general of the national police service with a lieutenant from the army and dismissed six deputy chiefs of staff and 29 major generals in the army. In February 2013, Kiir retired an additional 117 army generals with the move being regarded as a power grab by some. Kiir suggested that his rivals were trying to revive the rifts that had provoked infighting in the 1990s. In July 2013, Kiir dismissed Vice President Riek Machar, one-time leader of the Nasir revolt, along with his entire cabinet. Kiir suspended the SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum Okech and forbade him from leaving Juba or speaking to the media. The decrees elicited fears of political unrest, with Machar claiming that Kiir's move was a step towards dictatorship and announcing that he would challenge Kiir in the 2015 presidential election. He said that if the country is to be united, it cannot tolerate "one man's rule." In November 2013 Kiir disbanded all of the top-level organs of the SPLM party, including the Political Bureau, the National Convention and the National Liberation Council. He cited their failed performance and the expiration of their term limits.
Ethnic tension
For millennia, human society in the South Sudan region operated as a barter economy, with cattle being the primary medium of exchange. Cattle raids between different ethnic groups were an accepted and honorable way to acquire more cattle. However, there were widely accepted limits on the amount of violence permissible in cattle raids, and tribal elders would intervene if cattle raid violence became excessive. Furthermore, the antiquated weapons used in cattle raids were not likely to inflict mass casualties. During the Second Sudanese Civil War, the government in Khartoum, beginning in 1984, began a deliberate policy of "divide and rule" by arming young men with assault rifles and ammunition and encouraging them to engage in unlimited violence on cattle raids, hoping the resulting ethnic violence would cause so much disunity as to end the rebellion. This policy failed to end the rebellion, but it did cause the breakdown of accepted norms regarding violence on cattle raids and an increase in ethnic tensions between the peoples of southern Sudan. In 2010, Dennis Blair, the United States' Director of National Intelligence, issued a warning that "over the next five years,...a new mass killing or genocide is most likely to occur in southern Sudan." In 2011, there was fighting between the Murle and the Lou Nuer, mostly over cattle raids and abductions of children to be raised into the other tribe. The Nuer White Army released a statement stating its intention to "wipe out the entire Murle tribe on the face of the earth as the only solution to guarantee long-term security of Nuer's cattle". Notably, in the Pibor massacre, between 900 and 3,000 people were killed in Pibor. Although Machar and Kiir are both members of the SPLM, they stem from different tribes with a history of conflict. Kiir is an ethnic Dinka, while Machar is an ethnic Nuer.
Course of the conflict
Initial incident
On 15 December 2013, opposition leaders Dr. Riek Machar, Pagan Amum and Rebecca Nyandeng voted to boycott the National Liberation Council meeting in the Nyakuron neighbourhood of Juba.
The Sudan Tribune reported clashes breaking out on 15 December in the Munuki neighbourhood of Juba between members of the presidential guard. Kiir also claimed that the fighting began when unidentified, uniformed personnel started shooting at a meeting of the SPLM. The military headquarters near Juba University was then attacked, with occasional fighting continuing to the next day. Heavy gunfire and mortar fire were reported on 16 December, and UNMISS announced that hundreds of civilians sought refuge inside its facilities. Military spokesman, Philip Aguer said that some military installations had been attacked but that "the army is in full control of Juba," that the situation was unlikely to deescalate, and that an investigation was under way. Several people were also injured during the fighting. Juba International Airport was closed indefinitely; Kenyan airlines Fly540 and Kenya Airways indefinitely suspended flights to Juba after the airport closed. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed until further notice. State-owned SSTV went off-air for several hours. When it returned to broadcasting, it aired a message by President Salva Kiir. The dissident group was said to include Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) founder John Garang's widow, Rebecca Garang.
Former Minister of Higher Education Peter Adwok Nyaba said that on the evening 15 December after the meeting of the National Liberation Council had failed, Kiir told Major General Marial Ciennoung to disarm his soldiers of the "Tiger Battalion," which he did. Adwok then controversially claimed that the officer in charge of the weapons stores, opened them and rearmed only the Dinka soldiers. A Nuer soldier questioned this and a fistfight ensued which lead to more soldiers getting involved and raiding the stores and culminated in the Nuer soldiers taking control of the military headquarters. The next morning, Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) reinforcements arrived and dislodged the mutineers. Adwok explained:
"Military doctrine dictates that once a contingent of mutinous troops have been dislodged, appeal is made for their surrender and then disarmed. Those who remained loyal (to the president) are also disarmed to prevent bad blood. The loyal troops of Tiger, hailing mainly from Warrap and Aweil, have not been disarmed. In fact, they are the ones rampaging Juba, looting and shooting to kill any Nuer in the residential neighbourhoods."
Adwok was placed on a list of wanted politicians, to which he said "this may be my last contribution, because, as I said, I'm waiting for the police in order to join my colleagues in detention." On Christmas Day, five days after his controversial publication, Adwok was arrested and held for two days. He was later detained at the Juba airport when attempting to leave the country. His passport was also confiscated.
Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin claimed that those that were a part of the coup were "disgruntled" soldiers and politicians led by Machar and that at least ten people were confirmed to have been detained, seven were confirmed as former ministers including former Finance Minister Kosti Manibe and Pagan Amum was later reported to be held in house arrest. Other arrests included those of Kiir's critics. Information Minister Micheal Makuei Leuth claimed that Machar had left Juba with some soldiers and stolen cattle.
President Salva Kiir spoke on national television on 16 December, having abandoned his signature suit and stetson for military fatigues, and said, while surrounded by government officials, that the coup had been foiled and that it was orchestrated by a group of soldiers allied with the former vice president. On 21 December, the government announced its unconditional readiness to hold peace talks with any rebel group, including Machar In a Christmas message, Kiir warned of the fighting becoming a tribal conflict. Chief Whip and MP from Eastern Equatoria, Tulio Odongi Ayahu, announced his support for Kiir.
Machar spoke for the first time since the crisis began on 18 December in which he said he was not aware of any coup attempt, but instead blamed Kiir for fabricating the coup in order to settle political scores and target political opponents. He accused Kiir of inciting ethnic tensions to achieve his ends. He also said the violence was started by the presidential guard, which was founded by Kiir and told to report directly to him instead of the military. He refused to deny or acknowledge support for Gadet but that "the rebels are acting in the right direction." On 22 December, Machar said he wanted to be the leader of the country and that "his" forces would maintain control of the country's oil fields.
Beginning of rebellion (2013–2014)
The local Radio Tamazuj suggested UNMISS were absent from the streets in Juba and that president of the UN Security Council Gérard Araud, had announced that the peacekeepers would not intervene in the fighting. Human Rights Watch described an incident during the Juba conflict in which 200–300 Nuer men were collected, place in a room and then shot at, killing most of the men. The next day, witnesses reported seeing around 200 bodies being moved from a clinic in the Jebel area of Juba. A semblance of calm returned to Juba by 18 December, though there were unconfirmed reports of several students being killed by security personnel at Juba University.
The UN announced that thousands of people had sought refuge within its compounds with 13,000 people taking refuge in its two compounds in Juba. Two Indian peacekeepers were killed on 19 December whilst helping to protect 36 civilians in Akobo, Jonglei, when they were attacked by about 2,000 armed Nuer youths. The attack was condemned by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. On 10 February 2014, one of the UN compounds in Juba was surrounded by armed government troops and policemen, who demanded that the UN surrender the Nuer civilians sheltering there.