[ICYMI] Five things to know about South Sudan
Wedged between Africa's lush tropical jungles and dry, barren deserts, South Sudan is composed of more than 60 ethnic groups.
Christians make up roughly 60 percent of South Sudan's 12 million people, while about one-third follow animism and other traditional religions. A small minority is Muslim.South Sudan proclaimed its independence from Muslim-majority Sudan in July 2011 following a referendum that saw nearly 99 percent vote in favour of secession.
In December 2013, fighting erupted between their bodyguards in Juba, Kiir accused Machar of plotting a failed coup, and South Sudan descended into civil war. By the time Kiir and Machar agreed to honour a truce in 2018, nearly 400,000 South Sudanese were dead and another four million had been driven from their homes.The peace deal largely holds, but local militia conflicts, ethnic bloodletting and an insurgency in the nation's south has kept South Sudan locked in a state of pervasive violence.Four years of historic flooding have affected a seventh of a country the size of France, and uprooted over a million people.
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