After days of bloodshed in South Sudan, an uneasy truce is in effect in the world’s youngest nation, where soldiers slaughtered dozens last week.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar appealed for calm after days of heavy fighting between their soldiers.
Still, late Tuesday, civilians say the fighting continued. Isaac Wani of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Juba said “bombs fell on our compounds” and he saw many people killed after seeing “many bodies lying” at a local hospital that morning.
“Many were killed on the road when they were running to (U.N. peacekeepers),” said Yangi Night David, who is in Juba with her child and eight relatives. “The same happened in 2013. We lost many relatives. If we go home, maybe it will happen again.”
The United Nations reported Tuesday that the President and vice president had ordered public institutions reopened and all soldiers back to their barracks. The ceasefire appeared to “largely be holding, barring sporadic gunfire,” the United Nations said.
Kiir and Machar have separate forces loyal to each side, but more on that later. The two rivals have been embroiled in a power struggle for years, with forces loyal to both engaging in battles and civilians trapped in the crossfires.
Five years after seceding from neighboring Sudan, the fledgling nation got mired in yet another conflict — this time on the anniversary of its independence.
What initiated the latest clashes? Did they start over a Facebook post? Or was the violence triggered by an attack on a checkpoint? You asked, and we answered.
What is happening in South Sudan?
In 2011, South Sudan split from its northern neighbor, Sudan, in a contentious divorce brokered by international diplomats to end one of the world’s longest civil wars.
The split ended decades of violence and bloodshed between South Sudan, which is predominantly Christian, and its Muslim neighbor, Sudan.
Jubilant South Sudan citizens danced in the streets after gaining independence from Sudan. Many believed war was finally behind them and a peaceful existence awaited.
But things have been far from peaceful, and rival factions have turned on one another since the split.
This weekend marked the fifth anniversary of South Sudan’s independence. But instead of celebrating another year as a sovereign nation, violence erupted.
Why is South Sudan fighting?
Kiir and Machar are central characters at the heart of the infighting.
The two leaders have been embroiled in a power struggle since late 2013, when the President accused the vice president of trying to oust him through a coup.
The same year, the President fired his entire Cabinet, including the vice president.
Chaos ensued as forces loyal to both battled. Violence quickly spread, with reports of mass killings emerging nationwide.
The three years of violence has left at least 50,000 people dead, more than 2 million displaced and nearly 5 million others facing severe food shortages.
The conflict has taken ethnic undertones as each side stakes its loyalties — the Nuer tribe backs Machar while the President hails from the Dinka tribe. Militia sometimes separates terrified residents by ethnicity and massacres those from rival tribes, the United Nations said.
The Dinka and Nuer are the country’s biggest ethnic groups, with Dinka the largest at 36% and the Nuer at 16%, according to the CIA World Factbook.
They are “longtime rivals who had battled over land and resources since at least the 19th century,” a National Geographic article reported.
Oil, cattle, wealth
The U.S. State Department 2015 report on human rights practices in South Sudan noted ethnic tensions, including clashes between the Dinka and Nuer. It said the “country has at least 60 ethnic groups and a long history of interethnic conflict.”
“Interethnic fighting and violence by government, opposition forces and armed militias affiliated with the government and the opposition targeting specific ethnic groups resulted in human rights abuses throughout the year,” it said.
That report cites cattle as representing “wealth and status” for some ethnic groups.
“Competition for resources to maintain large cattle herds often resulted in conflict. Longstanding grievances over perceived or actual inequitable treatment and distribution of resources and political exclusion contributed to conflict.”
Oil is a major resource today in South Sudan. According to the Financial Times, “oil production has halved as a result of fighting between the ethnic Dinka and Nuer.”
Why was the vice president reinstated?
As the bloodshed continued, an exasperated international community appealed to Kiir and Machar to do whatever it takes to stop the violence.
As part of a peace deal to end the civil war, the President reinstated his political rival in February. Machar reclaimed his old job as vice president, but troops loyal to each side were not as forgiving, and clashed sporadically.
What role did social media play in the violence?
Depends whom you ask.
South Sudan’s ambassador to Kenya told local media that a social media post led to the recent outbreak of violence, which left about 150 people dead.
The vice president’s spokesman posted a message on Facebook last week saying Machar was detained at the presidential palace, while he was in fact meeting with the President, the ambassador alleged.
Forces loyal to Machar stepped into action, opening fire outside the palace, Kenyan media quoted the ambassador as saying. When the vice president’s forces tried to forcefully enter the palace to check on him, clashes ensued, the ambassador alleged.
CNN has reached out to the ambassador but has not heard back.
The vice president’s spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, slammed the ambassador’s accusations. He acknowledged posting on Facebook that Kiir had “attempted to arrest” the vice president but denied that post sparked the violence.
“Look at this liar who calls himself an ambassador in Kenya,” he posted on Facebook. “These people such as this ambassador in Kenya will never learn to tell the truth. They pride in lying.”
In a Wednesday statement, South Sudan’s Ambassador to the United Nations Akuei Bona Malwal backed his fellow ambassador in saying that Dak’s post was responsible for the violence, Machar’s “huge protection force in 21 mounted vehicles accompanied by an ambulance in which ammunition were concealed, arrived at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace as a response to a false BREAKING NEWS! Posted by the Press secretary of Dr. Riek Machar.”
Other media reports have said the violence started after clashes between the two sides at a checkpoint Thursday killed several soldiers loyal to Kiir.
In his statement, Malwal said there was a July 7 incident in which the vice president’s forces attacked a checkpoint in Juba, leaving two soldiers, two national security personnel and a doctor dead in the crossfire.
Is South Sudan safe?
In a country that has not seen much peace in recent years, most nations are not taking chances.
The United States has ordered the evacuation of all nonessential embassy employees, and two charter flights will depart Juba for Entebbe, Uganda, on Thursday.
Kenya’s largest airline, Kenya Airways, canceled flights to the capital of Juba.
The German Foreign Ministry said Wednesday an evacuation of German, European and other international citizens is underway. A plane carrying Italian and European citizens left for an Italian base in Djibouti on Wednesday, Italy’s Foreign Ministry said.
India has warned its citizens in the nation to stay indoors, while the government is working to evacuate all nationals via “special aircraft” Thursday. The nationals were advised to reach out to the embassy in Juba.
Britain’s Foreign Office advised against all travel to South Sudan, saying the security situation is deteriorating.
The Ugandan military is working to evacuate, via convoy, 2,000 of its citizens gathered in Juba, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda.
The effects of the fighting are spreading internationally. One Chinese peacekeeper was killed and six others injured last week.