JUBA, South Sudan — Tens of thousands of South Sudanese gathered under a sweltering sun on Monday in the capital, Juba, to celebrate the first birthday of the world’s youngest nation — an event marred by dire economic hardships and a near-constant threat of war.
Dance troops gave traditional performances and South Sudan’s armed forces put on a parade that featured the country’s fiercest pieces of weaponry: two attack helicopters. The sun was so intense that several soldiers were carried off in stretchers.
President Salva Kiir addressed the No. 1 threat: a return to war with Sudan, the country the south battled for more than two decades.
“Since our independence, Khartoum has continuously violated our sovereignty through aerial bombardments and ground incursions,” he said.
South Sudan’s biggest success in its first year was avoiding all-out war with Sudan. But it came close. A row over the sharing of the two countries’ once-unified oil industry prompted South Sudan to shut down its oil production.
Because the south’s oil travels through pipelines that run through Sudan, the decision cut off a major source of Khartoum’s revenue and has led to instability in that capital. But the move cost South Sudan as well. The landlocked nation derives 98 percent of its normal government budget from oil.
Oil also sparked a dangerous military confrontation between the two sides in April, when South Sudan captured the disputed town of Heglig, which is responsible for more than half of Sudan’s oil production. The move was met with international condemnation.
But several of South Sudan’s woes are internal. South Sudan has been beset by ethnic clashes, primarily in Jonglei state, where the United Nations estimates nearly 900 people were killed in brutal cattle raids and reprisal attacks between late December and early February.
Because of the loss of oil revenue, inflation is skyrocketing, leaving average families with less to eat. Nearly 200,000 refugees fleeing war in the southern reaches of Sudan have moved into refugee camps in South Sudan.
“The high hopes for the world’s newest nation have yet to materialize,” said Gerald Magashi of the aid group Plan International.
Aid groups say that South Sudanese soldiers are torturing members of the minority Murle community in Jonglei state during a disarmament campaign. The region is a powder keg likely to see violence between warring communities.
“The jubilation of independence is now tempered by the reality of a daily struggle to survive,” said Helen McElhinney, an Oxfam policy adviser. “Some people are living on one meal a day, and double the number of people are in need of food aid compared to last year. Refugees are enduring dire conditions in border camps with not enough water to go around.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently warned that “conflict and unresolved issues with Sudan, and internal inter-ethnic tensions have led to increased fighting and economic hardship that threaten to compromise the very foundation on which South Sudan’s future will be built.”
