South Sudan shares the dual “honour” of being the youngest nation in the world established in 2011 and also the poorest country in the world. As an aside on this trip I have visited the 3 poorest contries on the planet in order South Sudan, Burundi and CAR. This is a large country hived off from Sudan to the north, Sudan being Muslim and South Sudan being Christian/tribal religions. South Sudan is a country rich with oil resources but these are useless when the pipeline to export this runs through Sudan and has been sabotaged in Sudan who refuses to repair it.
It is a country that was born in the crucible of war with Sudan and all of its short history has been wracked with war, ongoing with Sudan and civil war from within with dissenting tribes. There are 64 ethnic groups in South Sudan. I tried to research the ongoing conflicts here and went cross eyed reading about and understanding the various groupings in this crazy mixed up nation.
Once again the capitol, Juba is underwhelming. Unlike Europe one doesn’t visit Africa for the sights of the big cities. Nonetheless it does have the white Nile flowing through it before it becomes th massive swamp known as the Sud. Eventually it merges with the blue Nile in far off Khartoum before becoming the main artery of Egyptian existence thence flowing into the Mediterranean sea.
