In maps and charts: South Sudan’s 15 years of independence

South Sudan became the world’s newest country in July 2011 after nearly 99 percent of voters chose independence from Sudan.

Fifteen years later, most of the major promises that came with independence remain unfulfilled.

South Sudan remains one of the world’s most fragile states.

Oil finances nearly 90 percent of the government’s revenue, but the country remains wracked by deep inequality and violence: 82 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and political jostling between rival groups has left the young nation in a perpetual state of conflict.

Elections have never been held since independence, millions remain displaced, and the country’s economy depends on pipelines running through Sudan, the very nation it fought to leave.

‘A failed promise’

Jok Madut Jok, 57, a professor and director of graduate studies at Syracuse University, is from Warrap, South Sudan, and still has family in both rural and urban parts of the country.

Jok says he recalls the joy of the time when South Sudan broke away to establish a new beginning. It was a moment of hope. Today, though, he feels as though he has been denied all that was promised at the time.

“South Sudan at the moment is a failed promise,” he says. “South Sudanese who had lived under brutal regimes in Sudan and had been excluded from money and development programmes, and were victims of security operations in the southern part, had hung their hopes on independence.”

Jok says people are now looking towards possibilities of political transitions to hold their government accountable.

Who controls what in South Sudan?

The country is technically governed by a transitional unity government created under the 2018 peace agreement.

But that peace remains fragile.

Violence continues across Jonglei, Upper Nile, Unity and Equatoria states with clashes involving government forces, opposition fighters and other armed groups.

Elections scheduled several times since independence have again been delayed, with the latest vote planned for late 2026.

Main political and armed groups:

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM)

The ruling party which led the independence movement.

Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO)

Led by Riek Machar, it is part of the unity government. It still maintains armed forces in parts of the country.

South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF)

The national army, formerly known as the SPLA, it is loyal to President Salva Kiir.

White Army

A loose network of armed youth, mainly from the Nuer ethnic group.

National Salvation Front (NAS)

It remains active, mainly in Equatoria province. The NAS never fully joined the peace agreement.

Who runs the government?

Salva Kiir – President since independence.

Riek Machar – Vice President.

Independence delivered, violence continued

Between 2011 and  2026, according to data compiled by the United States-headquartered Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), there were 13,256 attacks in South Sudan, which means 883 attacks per year on average – or more than two a day.

The majority of the attacks have been led by:

Jan Pospisil, 52, a researcher at the Austria-based Peace and Conflict Evidence Platform, recently conducted a survey of more than 22,000 respondents in South Sudan.

Of them, 98 percent said they were proud of being South Sudanese. At the same time, more than 52 percent of respondents said in 2023 that they didn’t feel safe speaking up politically, and in 2025, the results were approximately the same.

Hunger persists after 15 years of violence

Hunger is worsening across South Sudan, where an estimated 7.8 million people are facing crisis levels of food insecurity between April and July 2026, about 280,000 more than projected last year, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

Of those, about 73,000 people are living in catastrophic conditions, facing starvation, extreme food shortages and a heightened risk of death.

Another 2.5 million are in emergency conditions, while 5.3 million more are struggling to meet daily food needs without exhausting what little they have left.

The nutrition crisis is worsening alongside this.

An estimated 2.2 million children under five now require treatment for acute malnutrition, an increase of about 90,000 cases since the previous assessment.

Another 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women also need urgent nutritional support.

The crisis is being fuelled by conflict, displacement and repeated shocks that have destroyed livelihoods, disrupted markets and cut communities off from aid.

“My family is living in rural areas, some in the cities but have no access to quality healthcare, no clean drinking water, no road infrastructure,” Jok says. “Even if they were to farm and raise cattle, and create their own livelihoods, they usually are cut off from markets and from basic services that are the responsibility of the state, especially a state that extracts public resources from underneath the people.”

“It’s a feeling that people are totally excluded from the gains of independence,” he added. “It verges on criminal neglect.”

Economic inequality

Pospisil says despite the riches of the 150,000 barrels of oil that are extracted, sold and mainly exported every day, broader economic gains are not a reality for most of the public.

In most rankings, South Sudan languishes as the poorest nation in the world.

South Sudan mainly exports crude to China, but also has Chinese and Indian companies invested alongside state-held organisations that own blocks in the oil fields.