60 Fun Facts About South Sudan

In which year did South Sudan become an independent state?

Independence Day is 9 July. It became the 193rd member of the United Nations five days later.

Roughly what share of voters backed independence in the January 2011 referendum?

The exact figure was 98.83%. The vote had been promised by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended Africa's longest civil war.

What is the capital and largest city of South Sudan?

It grew from a Bari village where a mission school opened in 1920 and is the most recently declared national capital in the world.

The capital city stands on the banks of which river?

In South Sudan the river is known locally as the Bahr al Jabal, the 'Mountain Sea', and it forms the vast Sudd swamp downstream.

What is the Sudd?

Its Arabic name means 'barrier', because floating vegetation blocked Nile navigation for centuries. It is one of the largest wetlands on Earth.

South Sudan is landlocked and shares borders with how many countries?

Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.

Which of these names was NOT among those considered for the new country in 2011?

Juwama, a blend of Juba, Wau and Malakal, was another candidate. Equatoria is the name of one of the country's three historic regions.

South Sudan became which numbered independent country in Africa?

It joined the African Union as its 54th member on 27 July 2011, and Google Maps recognised it that September after a crowd-mapping drive.

Which SPLA/M founder died in a helicopter crash in July 2005, weeks after becoming Sudan's First Vice-President?

He was flying back from a secret meeting with Uganda's president when the Ugandan helicopter hit a mountain in bad weather.

Who became South Sudan's first president at independence in 2011?

Rarely seen without his black cowboy hat, a gift from George W. Bush, Salva Kiir had been Garang's deputy and took over on his death.

The civil war of December 2013 began as a struggle between the president and which ex-deputy?

Kiir accused him of plotting a coup. Around 400,000 people died before a 2018 power-sharing deal, and Machar was arrested again in March 2025.

The rebel army of the First Sudanese Civil War took the name Anyanya, a Madi word meaning what?

That war ran from 1955 to 1972 and ended with an autonomous southern region that lasted until 1983, when the second war began.

In 1898 Britain and France nearly went to war over the Upper Nile at which spot in South Sudan?

The town is now called Kodok. The French party was outnumbered ten to one and withdrew, leaving the Nile basin to Britain and Egypt.

Which British general served as Egypt's governor of the southern province from 1874, before dying at Khartoum?

Samuel Baker preceded him and Emin Pasha followed. Gordon was killed by the Mahdists in 1885, two days before a relief force arrived.

Sudan was governed from 1899 to 1956 as a 'condominium' shared by Britain and which other country?

Britain's 'Southern Policy' of 1930 ran the south separately from the Arabised north, then abruptly reversed course in 1946 without asking southerners.

Which is the largest ethnic group in South Sudan, making up around 40% of the population?

Along with Rwanda's Tutsi they are the tallest people in Africa. President Kiir is Dinka; his rival Machar is Nuer, the second-largest group.

What is the sole official language of South Sudan?

Few people speak it as a first language. Juba Arabic, a creole, is the everyday lingua franca, and Swahili is being added to school curricula.

About how many languages are spoken in South Sudan?

Sixty are indigenous and hold constitutional status as 'national languages'. Dinka, with 1.35 million speakers, is the biggest.

Which faith do the majority of South Sudanese follow, according to Pew estimates?

Pew put it at 60.5% Christian, 32.9% traditional religions and 6.2% Muslim. Catholics are the largest single church, and Kiir is one.

Oil provides roughly what share of the South Sudanese government's revenue?

Yet the crude must be pumped north through Sudan to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, a dependence that led Juba to shut off production entirely in 2012.

About what proportion of the former united Sudan's oil reserves ended up in South Sudan?

Splitting the revenue was the biggest unresolved issue at independence, along with the disputed border region of Abyei.

Which oil-rich border region's referendum on joining Sudan or South Sudan never officially happened?

Kafia Kingi is also disputed with Sudan, and the Ilemi Triangle with Kenya. South Sudanese forces briefly seized the Heglig oilfields in 2012.

In 2011 the government approved moving the capital to which more central location?

John Garang reportedly wanted the move too. The idea followed the model of purpose-built capitals like Abuja, Brasília and Canberra.

How many states does South Sudan have under the 2020 peace agreement?

Plus two administrative areas and Abyei's special status. Kiir had expanded the count to 28 and then 32 during the war before reverting.

The states are grouped into three historic regions: Bahr el Ghazal, Greater Upper Nile and which other?

Central Equatoria contains the capital. Darfur and Kordofan are regions of Sudan to the north.

In 2016 South Sudan became a full member of which regional bloc?

Its application to the Arab League, filed in 2014, is still pending. It also plans to join the Commonwealth.

The Boma-Badingilo landscape in South Sudan hosts the world's largest what?

Around five million white-eared kob plus gazelle, tiang and reedbuck move seasonally, a spectacle long thought lost to war until aerial surveys rediscovered it.

Which endemic antelope dominates the great migration with an estimated five million animals?

The Nile lechwe is the country's other endemic antelope. The migration ranges into Ethiopia's Gambella National Park.

What does the blue triangle on South Sudan's flag contain?

The flag was adopted in 2005, six years before the country existed. In 2023 the government made the sky-blue triangle and upright star the only legal version.

In which year was the South Sudanese flag adopted?

It came with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and had earlier been the SPLM's banner, with a slightly different design.

What is the currency of South Sudan?

Introduced on 18 July 2011 at par with its Sudanese namesake. Inflation later hit 380% in 2016 as the central bank printed money to cover deficits.

The national anthem is titled 'South Sudan, ...' what?

The word is roughly 'Hurrah!'. It was chosen through a competition launched in 2010, before the independence referendum.

Manute Bol, born in what is now South Sudan, was one of the two tallest players ever in which league?

Listed at 7 ft 6 or 7 ft 7, he was also a political activist who poured his money into relief for southern Sudan.

Two-time NBA All-Star Luol Deng, born in South Sudan, played international basketball for which country?

His family fled to London when he was a child. He later became president of the South Sudan Basketball Federation and briefly coached the team.

What is the nickname of South Sudan's men's national basketball team?

They qualified as the best African side at the 2023 World Cup, where their first win came against China, and nearly upset the USA in a Paris warm-up.

At the 2012 London Olympics, marathon runner Guor Marial from South Sudan competed under what banner?

His new country had no Olympic committee yet and he refused to run for Sudan. Full IOC recognition came in 2015.

Rapper Emmanuel Jal, author of a 2009 memoir about his early life, was what before his music career?

He was recruited by the SPLA as a boy and smuggled out to Kenya by a British aid worker; he has since spoken at TED.

In traditional South Sudanese wrestling matches, competitors smeared themselves with what?

Bouts were held after the harvest, with crowds singing and drumming; the wrestling was mainly entertainment rather than serious competition.

South Sudan's football team played its first match in 2011 against a club from which country?

They scored first but lost 1-3 to Tusker FC. FIFA membership followed in May 2012.

South Sudan's first public library, opened in 2019, is in which city?

The Juba Public Peace Library runs on about 40 volunteers and 13,000 books. UNICEF estimated around 3 million children were out of school in 2025.

In which two states was famine formally declared in February 2017?

About 4.9 million people needed urgent help. Aid contained the famine by mid-year, but millions have faced crisis-level hunger every year since.

Roughly what share of South Sudan's population is under 18?

The estimated population was 12.7 million in 2024, but there has been no reliable census in decades.

South Sudan's 248 km railway runs from the Sudanese border to which terminus?

It is a single narrow-gauge line. Extensions to Juba and links to Kenyan and Ugandan networks have been proposed but not built.

Which country's troops fought alongside government forces in the 2013 civil war and were invited back in 2025?

President Museveni was a long-time ally of the SPLM; John Garang died flying home from a meeting with him.

In 2015 South Sudan had the third-highest military spending as a share of GDP, behind which two countries?

Two of the world's richest states and one of its poorest topped the list, at a time when famine loomed.

The name 'Sudan' comes from an Arabic phrase meaning what?

Bilad as-Sudan originally described the whole belt south of the Sahara, from West Africa to the Nile.

Which creole language, spoken by about 1.45 million, is the lingua franca of towns and commerce?

Only about 250,000 speak it natively. Arabic lost its official status in the 2011 transitional constitution.

Which early recogniser of South Sudan in 2011 has hosted thousands of its refugees?

Sudan, Egypt, Germany and Kenya were also among the first, and the United States, which had steered the referendum, followed.

South Sudan's school system follows an '8 + 4 + 4' structure modelled on which neighbour?

Eight years of primary, four of secondary and four of university, taught in English rather than the Arabic used in Sudan.

What is the 2005 accord that ended the Second Sudanese Civil War and set up the independence referendum?

It gave the south six years of autonomy and a 50-50 oil split before the vote. The 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement had ended the first war.

Where did South Sudan rank on the UN Human Development Index in the 2021/22 report?

The 2021/22 report placed it 191st of 191 countries. It has also recorded the world's lowest nominal GDP per person, despite sitting on the third-largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa.

Which country borders South Sudan to the west?

The Central African Republic lies to the west, while the DR Congo sits to the southwest and Ethiopia to the east.

What was South Sudan's estimated population in 2024?

The figure is only an estimate, since no census has been held in the country for several decades.

President Salva Kiir, who promised freedom of religion in 2011, belongs to which church?

Catholic sources put the denomination at about 52% of South Sudan's Christians in 2020.

Which is the second-largest ethnic group in South Sudan?

The Dinka are the largest group, followed by the Nuer, the Azande and then the Bari.

Which Red Sea terminal receives the country's oil exports via the northern pipeline?

After independence, Khartoum charged 34 dollars a barrel to move oil through the pipeline, a fee Juba bitterly objected to.

The Southern Sudan Autonomous Region created in 1972 lasted until which year?

Its abolition coincided with the outbreak of the Second Sudanese Civil War, which ran for more than two decades.

In September 2024, the first post-war elections were pushed back to December of which year?

The vote had originally been scheduled for 2023 under the peace agreement, then moved to late 2024 before this second delay.

'Juwama', a name proposed for the new country in 2011, blended Juba, Wau and which third city?

Other rejected names included Azania, Jubanda, Nile Republic and Kush Republic.

When Kiir dissolved parliament in May 2021, the new legislature was to number how many lawmakers?

The expanded body was part of the 2018 power-sharing peace deal between the government and opposition.