Civil war in South Sudan from 2013 to 2018

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Civil war in South Sudan from 2013 to 2018
Military situation on February 21, 2016: Under government control. Under rebel control. Under control of Sudan
Military situation on February 21, 2016:
  • Under government control
  • Under the control of the rebels
  • Under the control of Sudan
    • date December 2013 to 2018
    place South Sudan
    output open
    Parties to the conflict

    Flag of South Sudan.svg South Sudan

    Rebels

    Commander

    Salva Kiir Mayardit

    Riek Machar


    The civil war in South Sudan took place from mid-December 2013 to summer 2018. The parties to the conflict fought for the political leadership of the South Sudan state, which has been independent since 2011 . Since then there has been a fragile peace .

    course

    Beginning

    • Salva Kiir (2009)

    • Riek Machar

    The starting point of the conflict was the impending disarmament of members of the Nuer ethnic group in the presidential guard around former Vice President Riek Machar , whom President Salva Kiir Mayardit had dismissed in July 2013. Additional ethnic conflicts, including among the civilian population, were feared - also by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon - since the two opponents belong to different ethnic groups. On December 19, 2013, the refugee camp in Akobo in Jonglei Province was overrun by 2,000 rebels. Two Indian UNMISS soldiers and 20 civilians were killed, the remaining 40 UN blue helmet soldiers were withdrawn. Fighting broke out again in the provincial capital Bor , where several thousand people were killed in riots in 2012. The United Nations put the total number of deaths at several thousand within a week. Hundreds of thousands of civilians fled their homes, 45,000 of them in refugee camps of the United Nations.

    The UN Security Council decided to increase the number of UNMISS blue helmets from 7,000 by 5,500. The Secretary General of the United Nations appealed to the troublemakers involved: "Whatever their differences of opinion, they cannot justify the violence engulfing their young nation." Ban Ki-moon urged all persons and organizations involved in the conflict to join one Mediation of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an intergovernmental organization for environmental protection, development and peacekeeping in East Africa. UNMISS director Hilde F. Johnson and the African Union also endorsed this solution-oriented dialogue between the conflicting parties, as did the World Security Council at its meeting on December 24, 2013. Thousands of people died in further skirmishes, particularly in the states of Jonglei and Unity; More than half a million civilians were on the run in mid-January 2014, according to UN figures 716,000 people within South Sudan and 156,800 in neighboring countries. In early August 2014, the UN warned of a humanitarian catastrophe with famine and put the number of "uprooted" people at 1.5 million since December 2013.

    A US Marine accompanies US citizens on their evacuation (January 13, 2014)

    First armistice

    On January 23, 2014, the two sides agreed on a provisional ceasefire and further negotiations on a peace treaty if the ceasefire were to remain stable. With the mediation of IGAD and the deployment of military from other East African countries, the government's negotiator, Nhial Deng Nhial , and an envoy from Riek Machar were able to achieve an initial success in negotiations in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa . The assurance of a ceasefire within 24 hours and the establishment of humanitarian corridors were signed by General Taban Deng Gai as a delegate of the opposition, the Ethiopian host Seyoum Mesfin , and Generals Lazaro Sumbeiywo and Mohamed Ahmed M. El Dabi as envoy of the IGAD. The negotiators referred to the provisional constitution of South Sudan of 2011, which obliges all parties to a sincere healing process in the young state through dialogue. The neighboring states guaranteed the sovereignty of South Sudan. Nevertheless, the conflict continued after a four-week widespread ceasefire, with Nuer rebels occupying the oil town of Malakal . The planned peace negotiations had not got underway. Tulio Odongi, the SPLM faction leader in South Sudan's parliament, said that up to 70% of the South Sudanese army had deserted, particularly in the embattled Upper Nile region. In May 2014, Amnesty International reported massive human rights violations with atrocities also against pregnant women, children and the elderly during the riots. In addition, 11,000 refugees fled to Ethiopia in May. Following a mediation mission by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, negotiators agreed on May 5th a ceasefire that was to apply from May 7th.

    Second armistice

    On May 9, 2014, peace negotiations took place again in Addis Ababa, with the first direct talks between Kiir and Machar since the beginning of the civil war. A peace treaty was concluded with the mediation of the former AU chairman Hailemariam Desalegn and IGAD negotiator Seyoum Mesfin: an end to hostilities within 24 hours, a transitional government by consensus, early elections and a new meeting after 30 days were agreed. Machar spoke of a "senseless war". According to UN estimates, five million people now need humanitarian aid in May 2014. Overly optimistic assessments were warned, however, since famine is feared if the farmers cannot sow at the beginning of the rainy season . In Juba, the UN loaded ships with relief supplies for the cities of Bentiu and Malakal in the embattled oil-rich states in the north of the country as short-term emergency aid.

    Peace negotiations and resurgence of fighting

    In August 2015, the parties agreed on a peace treaty during talks in Ethiopia. A government of national unity should be formed. The talks became possible as the majority of the government troops from Juba were withdrawn into the area and the UNMISS began to fly 1,370 rebels into the capital.

    In March 2016, a UN representative announced that more than 50,000 people had been killed in the civil war and 2.2 million displaced by then.

    On March 11, 2016, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights , Said Raad al-Hussein , published a report on mass rape in the civil war. According to the report, 1,300 rapes were committed within five months in the southern Sudanese state of Unity alone . The government but also the rebels use the mass rapes as reward for their fighters. Since they took place systematically and were directed against specific ethnic groups, they should be classified as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    On April 26, 2016, rebel leader Riek Machar was sworn in as Vice President in accordance with the August 2015 peace agreement.

    On May 24, 2016, Human Rights Watch reported on war crimes in the west of the country. Numerous civilians were killed, tortured and raped. In addition, HRW spoke of looting and arson.

    On June 22, 2016, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) published a report on a massacre in a UN protection zone in Malakal in February 2016. Within one day, 25 to 65 civilians were killed and at least 108 people were injured. In the course of this, 3700 accommodations were burned. The UNMISS have despite strong military presence and clear mandate does not prevent the weapons transport and the attacks and reacts extremely slowly. MSF also accused UNMISS of closing the protection zone and wanting to relocate the residents.

    The fighting flared up again at the end of June 2016. According to the government, 43 people - 39 civilians and four police officers - were killed in fighting against militia leader Ali Tamin Fatan on the border with the Central African Republic within a week .

    According to government reports, around 270 people were killed in fighting in the capital Juba between July 8 and 10, 2016, which had been triggered by a deadly confrontation at a checkpoint the day before. There was also damage to two accommodations of the UN mission. President Salva Kiir Mayardit and the United Nations called for an immediate end to the fighting between the army and the forces of Vice President Riek Machar ; among other things, the UN Security Council came together for a special session on the subject. On the night of July 11, 2016, the US State Department withdrew all employees from its embassy in Juba whose service was not indispensable.

    After more than 270 deaths from new fighting in July, the United Nations voted unanimously for an extension of the peace operation beyond July 31 to August 12, 2016. This should give the diplomats more time to resolve the conflict and the A new resolution can be drawn up, including an arms embargo and the dispatch of new troops. The US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, criticized the fact that the 12,000 armed UN peacekeeping forces in the country were unable to perform their duties. Previously, President Salva Kiir Mayardit had replaced his rival Vice President Riek Machar with the previous Mining Minister, Taban Deng Gai . After an attack on his home in Juba, Machar's whereabouts are unknown and he had given Kiir a 48-hour ultimatum to return to the capital and save the peace agreement. According to the UN, more than 830,000 people fled the fighting to the neighboring countries of Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda, the majority of them women and children.

    On August 17, 2016, rebel spokesmen announced that Riek Machar had fled abroad due to an injury following an assassination attempt. A helicopter from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) picked him up in the northern Congolese region near the border and flew him to Kisangani with his wife and ten armed bodyguards .

    On February 20, 2017, the three UN agencies FAO , UNICEF and WFP, together with South Sudan's food authority IPC, officially declared the existence of a famine in the districts of Leer and Mayendit in the state of Unity . 100,000 people are in acute danger of starvation. The last time a famine was declared on the African continent was in 2011 .

    In March 2017, a UN reporter accused the government of resettling members of the Dinka ethnic group in areas from which Shilluk had previously been evicted. Furthermore, murders, rape and arrests for no reason have become commonplace. Similarly, the UN Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide , Adama Dieng , warned of the threat of genocide in November 2016 due to the increasing ethnic polarization of the conflict.

    Third armistice and further development

    On June 27, 2018, the conflicting parties in Khartoum agreed a ceasefire. On September 12, 2018, they signed a peace treaty in Addis Ababa. Nevertheless, the war claimed further victims in 2019 as well, see terrorist attack on May 28, 2019 . In February 2020, a unity government was formed again with Riek Machar as vice-president.

    See also

    Web links

    Commons : Civil war in South Sudan since 2013  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
     Wikinews: South Sudan: Famine looms after failed ceasefire (August 13, 2014)  - News

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ https://www.amnesty.de/jahresbericht/2017/suedsudan
    2. ↑ http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article59450
    3. ↑ http://www.southsudannewsagency.com/index.php/2016/01/15/david-yau-yau-surrenders-cobra-faction-to-a-general-linked-to-the-spla-io/
    4. ↑ http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article58102
    5. ↑ South Sudan is sinking into violence , in: heute.de , December 20, 2013. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
    6. ^ A b As South Sudan conflict worsens, Ban proposes reinforcing UN peacekeepers , United Nations News Centre23. December 2013 (English) Original quote from Ban Ki-moon : “Whatever their differences may be, they cannot justify the violence that has engulfed their young nation”. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
    7. ^ United Nations sends 5500 more blue helmets. Retrieved February 11, 2015 .
    8. ↑ UN want to send 5500 more blue helmet soldiers. Retrieved February 11, 2015 .
    9. ↑ a b Unanimously Adopting Resolution 2132 (2013), Security Council Increases United Nations Mission's Military Presence in South Sudan , United Nations Security Council , December 24, 2013. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
    10. ↑ Hilde F. Johnson: ( (PDF) ) UNMISS situation report and press conference , December 24, 2013 (English). Retrieved December 25, 2013.
    11. ↑ a b Dominic Johnson : Second round of civil war - The Nuer rebels around Ex-Vice President Riek Machar have gone on the offensive again and have conquered the oil city of Malakal. In: the daily newspaper , February 20, 2014, accessed March 9, 2014.
    12. ↑ South Sudan on brink of a 'humanitarian catastrophe,' warns senior UN peacekeeping official , in: UN NewsCenter, online August 6, 2014, accessed September 2, 2014.
    13. ^ South Sudan: Government and rebels agree on peace treaty. Retrieved February 11, 2015 .
    14. ↑ Weapons in South Sudan should be silent ( memento from January 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), tagesschau.de , January 23, 2014, accessed on January 24, 2014.
    15. ^ South Sudanese Parties Sign Peace Agreement , IGAD, January 23, 2014, Ababa, accessed January 31, 2014.
    16. ↑ Rivals agree on peace treaty for South Sudan , dw.de, accessed on May 15, 2014.
    17. ↑ a b Warlords back on start
    18. ↑ At least 50,000 dead in civil war in South Sudan
    19. ↑ UN complains about mass rape in South Sudan
    20. ^ Allegations of murder and torture against armed forces in South Sudan
    21. ↑ Doctors Without Borders blame the UN for the massacre in South Sudan
    22. ↑ At least 43 dead in fighting in South Sudan
    23. ↑ New struggles in the young state: South Sudan slides back into civil war on n-tv.de, July 11, 2016.
    24. ^ Civil war in South Sudan: United States vacates embassy in Juba at faz.net, July 11, 2016.
    25. ↑ tagesschau.de. "UN extends peacekeeping mission in South Sudan". tagesschau.de. Accessed July 31, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160730033145/https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/suedsudan-213.html .
    26. ↑ tagesschau.de. "South Sudan: President Kiir deposed rival Machar". tagesschau.de. Accessed July 31, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160727135353/https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/suedsudan-211.html .
    27. ↑ UN hands over Riek Machar to Congo. In: taz , August 19, 2016.
    28. ↑ 100,000 people in South Sudan are at risk of starvation. In: Der Spiegel , February 20, 2017.
    29. ↑ War and Famine in South Sudan. The body consumes first. In: taz , February 21, 2017.
    30. ↑ Famine declared in parts of South Sudan. At UNICEF, February 20, 2017.
    31. ↑ IPC Global Alert - South Sudan - Localized Famine And Unprecedented Levels of acute malnutrition in greater unity. ( Memento from February 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) For Integrated Food Security Phase Classification .
    32. ↑ Justin Lynch: "UN expert warns of South Sudan 'population engineering'." In: Washington Post , March 14, 2017.
    33. ↑ UN warn of genocide in South Sudan. DW, November 11, 2016, accessed October 10, 2017 .
    34. ↑ ThiloThielke: A little peace . Ed .: FAZ. 2nd July 2018.
    35. ↑ tagesschau.de: South Sudan: Where a few seeds save lives. Retrieved February 22, 2020 .