South Sudan: Key dates since independence

It has cancelled its fifth independence celebrations on Saturday with its economy in ruins as it struggles to end a war that has left tens of thousands dead.

On July 9, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir^[3] proclaims independence before tens of thousands of jubilant South Sudanese citizens and several foreign leaders.

The mainly Christian South splits from the Muslim North after six years of autonomy and decades of civil war, which lasted from the late 1950s to 1972, and then again between 1983 and 2005, leaving millions dead.

A peace accord signed in 2005 by North and South opens the way to a referendum^[4] on independence, in which nearly 99 percent of southerners vote for secession.

However numerous disputes remain between the two countries, notably on how to share oil revenues, the tracing of their common border and the status of disputed regions like Abyei.

From March to May deadly clashes pit the armies of Juba and Khartoum against each other in the oil fields of Heglig, an area to which both countries lay claim.

South Sudanese troops briefly occupy the area, which accounts for half of Sudan's crude oil^[5] production.

Upon independence, South Sudan inherited three quarters of Sudan's oil reserves, but, being landlocked, depends on the North's infrastructure to export crude.

With bitter arguments over pipeline transit costs, the North confiscates part of the oil. Furious, Juba in response halts its production in January.

In April 2013, after more than a year of halted production, oil from the South starts flowing again through Sudan.

On December 15, heavy gunfire erupts in Juba. Tensions had spiked after Riek Machar^[6], from the country's second-largest ethnic group, the Nuer, was fired as vice-president in July.

Kiir, from the majority Dinka people, accuses Machar of a failed coup.

Machar denies this and accuses Kiir of starting the war by launching a purge of his rivals. The fighting is marked by ethnic massacres in Juba, spreading to several states.

The northern city of Bentiu, capital of oil-rich Unity State, Malakal in Upper Nile^[7], and Bor in Jonglei are among the main centres of the fighting. All three are razed by fighting.

On August 17, 2015, Machar signs a peace accord in Addis Ababa providing for a ceasefire and a power-sharing mechanism.

On August 26, Kiir signs the accord, while expressing "serious reservations" on several of its provisions.

On April 26, 2016, Machar finally returns to Juba, where he is sworn in as vice-president of a unity government. Three days later, Kiir forms his transitional government. Fighting continues.

References

1. ^{^} South Sudan (www.bing.com)
2. ^{^} civil war (www.bing.com)
3. ^{^} Salva Kiir (www.bing.com)
4. ^{^} referendum (www.bing.com)
5. ^{^} crude oil (economictimes.indiatimes.com)
6. ^{^} Riek Machar (www.bing.com)
7. ^{^} Nile (economictimes.indiatimes.com)