South Sudan is one of the most war-prone and famine countries in the world, and all its citizens live precariously. An officer of the Chinese peacekeeping force in South Sudan commented: "The country seems to have nothing but war, refugees, poverty and hunger."
As a result of years of armed conflict, there are a large number of refugee camps in South Sudan that do not meet even the most basic living conditions
In 2011, after years of difficult negotiations in a brutal civil war, South Sudan officially became the youngest country in the world and was quickly recognized by the international community, including the forced separation of Sudan.
Chinese peacekeeping force in South Sudan
However, instead of moving towards peace and prosperity as South Sudanese had expected, South Sudan descended into more serious civil strife.
Map of Sudan and South Sudan. Sudan is a divided country, and after South Sudan's independence in 2011, the situation deteriorated even further, and it was full of rebels
This African country, which has just been established for less than 12 years, has now become the country with the lowest "human development index" in Africa and even the world, competing with Somalia and Afghanistan for the "bottom one" for many years, in fact, including Sudan, these two "Sudans" are the permanent places of Chinese peacekeeping forces, where people are no strangers to the five-star red flag.
Chinese peacekeeping force in South Sudan
In Juba, the capital of South Sudan, there are many shops, restaurants and guesthouses that Chinese own.
Chinese supermarket in Juba, South Sudan
Before 2011, Sudan had a land area of about 2,495,800 square kilometers, the largest country in Africa, and after 2011, South Sudan took away 620,000 square kilometers, although North and South Sudan were once a country, but in fact have always been supernatural, South Sudan's independence is an inevitable result, for this, Sudan paid the price of more than 2 million deaths and more than 5 million displacement.
The founding of the country was cool for a while, but it was still troublesome afterwards.
South Sudanese celebrate the independence of South Sudan
South Sudan has a total population of about 12 million and a GDP of only US$3.4 billion, a figure that is too low to be seen in many counties in China, and the average monthly income of South Sudanese is less than 200 yuan. It is hard to imagine that in the 21st century, there are such poor countries in the world, which is the "difference in the world".
Chinese peacekeepers talk with local youth in South Sudan
Today's South Sudan is full of hunger and illiteracy, with a poverty rate of 70 percent, rural people living in thatched huts and urban residents worrying about frequent gun battles. People in South Sudan live in armed conflict, military coups, terrorist attacks and tribal vendettas, and in addition to sighs, UN peacekeepers often feel powerless. In South Sudan, civilians die by gunfire at a 57% rate.
A female major of a Chinese peacekeeping force with children from South Sudan
As a South Sudanese, the chance of dying from an unknown bullet every day on the street is creepy. But they are more worried about the fate of their next meal than the shooting. After all, the bullet does not know when it will come, but the hunger is real.
South Sudan Government Army
"Sudan", which means "land of blacks" in Arabic, is located at the junction of East, North and Central Africa, and is heavily influenced by Arab-Islamic civilization, while South Sudan is relatively closer to indigenous African culture, and Christianity imported from the Mediterranean region also has a strong influence.
South Sudanese are predominantly Christian
In the 6th century, Christianity was introduced to Sudan from the Mediterranean region, and in the 8th century, due to the rise of the Arab Empire, Islam was also rapidly introduced, and two sects of Muslims and Christians were formed in Sudan, laying the seeds for future religious conflicts.
An Arab girl in Khartoum, Sudan
North Sudan has long been ruled by Arabs from North Africa, and today's Sudanese are white-skinned and of many Arab descents, while South Sudanese are basically black. At the same time, the climate is different, North Sudan has a desert climate, while South Sudan has a mostly rainforest climate.
North and South Sudan are not similar in terms of natural conditions, humanistic beliefs, and ethnic factions, with North Sudan predominantly believing in Islam and using Arabic as its official language, while South Sudan is predominantly Christian and indigenous religions, with English as its official language. But historically, North and South Sudan have been forcibly combined into one country, and conflict between North and South is inevitable.
A strange pair of sisters in the Sudan who were born to the same father and mother
In 1820, Ali Pasha, the governor of Egypt of the Ottoman Empire, sent troops south to plunder the sultan's gold. After the occupation of Sudan, Ali Pasha ordered people to survey the terrain and draw up maps, giving rise to the general area of today's Sudan.
Ali Pasha, Albanian, governor of Ottoman Egypt, founder of the Ali dynasty of Egypt, founder of modern Egypt
The Ottoman Empire went on a rampage in Sudan, and because North Sudanese were also Muslims, they jointly sold blacks from the south to white Europeans, and more than 2 million black Sudanese were reduced to black slavery for more than 40 years.
Arabs captured black South Sudanese blacks as slaves
At that time, North Sudan was ruled by Arabs and nominally subordinate to the Egyptian viceroyalty under the Ottoman Empire, but because the Ottoman Empire was controlled by the Turkic nobility, the contradiction was also very serious.
Social divisions after the Ottoman occupation of Sudan
In 1899, the British colonists controlled Egypt, and Sudan was a vassal of Egypt, and the British colonists also sent troops to suppress the Sudanese uprising, and Sudan became a British colony.
Big knives and spears can't beat long guns
After the British took over Sudan, the first thing they had to do was to find a way to make money, but Sudan was a barren place, and only the climate was suitable for cotton cultivation. So the Sultan has been growing cotton, and on the day of independence, it was actually a large cotton plantation.
To this day, the export of staple cotton remains one of Sudan's most important sources of economy
Cotton, a crop, likes dry climate, so most of them are concentrated in the north, the British also built many factories in the north, and gradually there are railways and roads, and South Sudan, which is full of swamps and rainforests, has nothing.
South Sudan speaks English and professes Christianity; Sudan, on the other hand, speaks Arabic and practices Islam
In order to maintain system rule, the most powerful trick of the British is to divide and rule. They supported Islam in North Sudan and became emperors themselves; In South Sudan, English and Christianity are vigorously promoted and Muslim activities are banned, making the North-South confrontation more and more serious. When the Muslim uprising broke out in North Sudan, the British directly organized an all-black Christian army in South Sudan, which had a blood feud with North Sudan, specifically to suppress the uprising of Muslims in the North.
After the end of World War II, the British ended their colonial rule in Sudan, leaving behind a warring North and South Sudan.
The British initially wanted to unite the predominantly black South Sudan and Uganda, and the Arab-majority North Sudan and Egypt, only to be protested by the Sudanese government.
Sudanese government forces have sent troops to Yemen
Sudan became independent in 1956, but only eight of the more than 800 officials of the new Sudanese government were from South Sudan. At the beginning of independence, the central government dominated by North Sudan imposed a policy of Islamization, while South Sudan, with its Christian population, could not bear it, and the first civil war broke out in Sudan in 1955.
The first Sudanese civil war lasted 17 years and was fought in 1972, resulting in more than 500,000 deaths and nearly $20 billion in losses, leaving the entire Sudan with only one breath.
In 1956, when Sudan's first government was formed, it could be described as "eight immortals crossing the sea", and there were everyone in the parliament, Arabs who advocated union with Egypt, northern Muslims who advocated the establishment of a theocratic state, southern Christians who advocated autonomy in South Sudan, and pro-Soviet left-wing forces.
Nasser, Egypt's second president, one of the most important figures in Egypt's modern history, was known as the "Lion of the Middle East" for his outstanding ability to win the Suez Canal
The Sultan has nothing, only cotton, and cotton exports have to rely on the Suez Canal, and until now the Sultan has to live on the face of Egypt. This is a typical "patchwork country" that cannot develop independently, and in 1958, the Sudanese prime minister planned to bring in American capital, which caused chaos to erupt, and Army Commander Abboud took the opportunity to stage a coup d'état.
Abboud
Sudan entered the era of military government, and because the civilian government was so bad, the Sudanese initially welcomed the military government. Although Abboud was a martial artist, he was elegant and easygoing, and he was also quite popular. However, his true colors soon became revealed, and he shut down parliament and continued to oppress South Sudanese Christians.
Good, very spirited!
Abboud also could not stand and slipped from power in ashes. Since then, Sudan has changed its cabinet every few months, the prime minister and president have taken the horse lamp, and the lives of ordinary people have become more and more difficult. In 1969, the young officer Nimely made another coup d'état, and he worked with the left to nationalize foreign enterprises and formulate a five-year plan.
South Sudanese armed forces
In 1972, Nimeli and the Southern armed forces reached an agreement, the civil war stopped, and the Sudanese government recognized South Sudan's autonomous status. Under the Nimeili government, Sudan experienced a rare economic growth, but soon after much foreign capital was nationalized, it lost money. Government deficits soared wildly, and by 1985 they owed more than $10 billion in external debt, the largest in Africa.
But in the 70s, a large number of oil fields were discovered in South Sudan, and the Americans came smelling the oil, and Sudan instantly had a large injection of US capital. But the oil-producing regions were all in South Sudan, and the central government under North Sudan's control took most of the money, and civil war resumed.
Nymely and Reagan
In 1983, the second Sudanese civil war broke out, South Sudan launched with the support of Ethiopia, Uganda and other black countries, and fought until 2005, resulting in more than 2 million deaths, most of them South Sudanese.
In 1989, when the army coup d'état again and Bashir came to power, he was a ruthless man who directly used force to promote Islamization, forced black South Sudanese blacks to convert to Islam, and set up religious courts. In order to attract investment, he even hooked up with bin Laden, which once made Sudan the base of al-Qaeda's African activities.
In 1993, Sudan was listed by the United States as "one of the countries that support terrorism", and in 1996, it immediately expressed "support for the big brother of the United States" and opened all the country's oil reserves to US capital.
Transporting oil by donkey cart, Sudanese peculiarity
The oil came from South Sudan, but most of the money was eaten by North Sudan, which South Sudanese could no longer bear, and in 2011, South Sudan applied for a referendum to declare independence with 98.83% of the vote, which was recognized by the United Nations five days later. South Sudan gets nearly 85% of its oil fields, but lacks modern extraction facilities and is highly dependent on foreign investment.
Swearing-in meeting for officers and soldiers of Chinese peacekeepers in South Sudan
Since there is no 85% of the oil, yesterday I ate steak, today I gnawed steamed buns, and many contradictions broke out in the middle of the family. In 2016, international oil prices plummeted, and Sudan fell into a serious political crisis. Angry citizens stormed government buildings, and even the police and soldiers who came to suppress them chose to defect, you can imagine how unpopular Bashir was.
Sudanese protest against government corruption
On the side of South Sudan, after independence, there was a civil war again, because the contradictions between the two major ethnic groups of the country, the Dinka and the Nuer, were also very serious, and now they lost their common enemies and fought each other with swords.
South Sudanese female soldiers
South Sudan's first president, Kiir, was a Dinka and Vice President Machar was a Nur. The two presidents and vice presidents refused to submit to the other, and the political struggle soon led to a national war. In 2013, President Kiir announced the dismissal of Machar as vice president, and Machar refused to hand over power, and civil war broke out between the Dinka and Nuer, and South Sudan was once again plunged into war.
President Kiir (right) and Vice President Machar (left)
During the civil war, both armies committed many atrocities against humanity, and the Dinka armed massacre of more than 20,000 Nuer people indiscriminately, the Nuer retaliated, tens of thousands were killed, and millions became refugees.
Upper Nile State, where the oil ranges, is the area where South Sudan's rebels and government forces are most fighting, and it accounts for more than 85% of South Sudan's oil reserves, which is the area that both sides want.
It seems to be a tribal conflict, but it is actually a competition for oil, and more than 95% of South Sudan's fiscal revenue depends on selling oil, which is the country's only lifeblood. The oil resources that should have put the country on the right track have become the country's curse.
In 2016, the worst year of the civil war, PetroChina's investments here also suffered huge losses due to the long period of turmoil.
In fact, South Sudan's major ethnic groups have little in common except that they are black, and it is very difficult to come together, war is inevitable, almost all South Sudanese ethnic groups have their own armies, and the nationalist narratives of African countries are like this, forcibly combined by history. At the same time, Ethiopia, Uganda and other countries have also intervened in the civil war in South Sudan to varying degrees.
Machar
South Sudan as a landlocked country, oil income is very limited, first of all, if you want to export, you must export to Sudan-controlled ports, each barrel of oil to pay Sudan an average of $11 toll, while South Sudan oil extraction is highly dependent on foreign capital, the cost is also very huge, so South Sudan can only earn 5-10 US dollars per barrel of oil, very low, and overexploitation makes South Sudan's oil may dry up in 2035.
Ultimately, Britain's colonial legacy is the root cause. Today, South Sudan has an illiteracy rate of 85%, more than 90% of the population is in extreme poverty, living on less than $2 (about 13 yuan) a day, and the only remaining oil is the country's only future, and it is also suffering a huge disaster. In 2018, South Sudan's civil war ended, but peace remains elusive.
Due to extreme poverty and famine, coupled with years of war, after 2016, the United Nations sent a large number of peacekeeping troops (the total number of more than 10,000) to South Sudan to implement humanitarian assistance, Chinese peacekeeping force is currently the most important peacekeeping force in South Sudan, more than 20 people have died in the line of duty today, for the peace of South Sudan, Chinese soldiers have paid a lot.
Today's South Sudan, less than 12 years after its founding, is fighting and stormy, almost teetering on the verge of annihilation. In addition to selling oil, the economy imports a huge amount of grain every year, and has more than 50 billion yuan in foreign debts that will never be repaid.
I am afraid that peacekeepers are the only hope.
Chinese peacekeeper engineers help South Sudanese repair cars