Eastern Africa · SSD
South Sudan
The story · 9 chapters
How it was drawn
The upper Nile lands beyond the Sudd, conquered by Egypt and ruled with Sudan from 1899, which won independence in 2011 after two long civil wars and then fell into a war of its own.
Play the story Take the first lessonThrough the ages
Rivals in history
The kingdoms, empires and states South Sudan fought or stood against, from the first to today.
- Egypt of Muhammad Ali and the khedives1839 to 1885
From 1839 Egyptian expeditions force a way through the Sudd. Traders from Khartoum follow, raiding for ivory and slaves, and in the 1870s Egypt annexes Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal as provinces.
- Mahdist State1883 to 1898
Mahdist forces take Bahr el Ghazal in 1884 and cut Equatoria off from Egypt; its governor, Emin Pasha, leaves in 1889. The Mahdists hold much of the south until 1898.
- British Empire1898 to 1956
Britain conquers the south slowly against stiff resistance. Its campaigns against the Nuer from 1927 to 1930 include air raids and the killing of the prophet Guek Ngundeng in 1929.
- Republic of Sudan1955 to 2005
For half a century southern rebels fight the government in Khartoum, from 1955 to 1972 and again from 1983 to 2005, over power, religion, land and oil, until the peace deal that opens the way to independence.
After the split, the two countries dispute Abyei, Kafia Kingi and other border areas, and clash over the Heglig oil field in 2012. Abyei's final status is still unresolved.
The Ilemi Triangle, a dry grazing area administered by Kenya, sits on a border that colonial Britain never finally fixed. Its status has never been settled by treaty.
- SPLM in Opposition2013 to 2018
Riek Machar's rebel movement fights the government of Salva Kiir from December 2013. The war ends with a peace deal in September 2018, and Machar rejoins the government in 2020.
Today
South Sudan now
South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, is the world’s newest country. Home to a diverse array of mainly Nilotic ethnolinguistic groups that settled in the territory in the 15th through 19th centuries, South Sudanese society is heavily dependent on seasonal migration and seasonal fluctuations in precipitation. Modern-day South Sudan was conquered first by Egypt and later ruled jointly by Egyptian-British colonial administrators in the late 19th century.
- Capital
- Juba
- Government
- presidential republic
- Head of government
- Salva Kiir Mayardit
- Languages
- English
- Area
- 646,883 km²
Through time
Then and now
- Population11.5 million2023 · 2.5 million in 1950
- Life expectancy57.6 years2023 · 30.2 years in 1950
- Living in cities22%2025 · 6% in 1950
- Literacy27%2008
- Political regimeClosed autocracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
- Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950
- Military spending3.4% of GDP2025
- War deaths5.0 per 100,0002025
Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.
Relations
Close partners and tensions
Close partners
- Ethiopia
- Uganda
- Kenya
- United States
- France
Tensions
- Sudan
- Russian Federation
Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 24 October 2026.