Southern Sudan حكومة جنوب السودان Ḥukūmatu Janūbi s-Sūdān |
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Autonomous region of Sudan | ||||||
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Motto "Our Victory" |
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Map showing Southern Sudan (red) within Sudan (darker brown). | ||||||
Capital | Juba | |||||
Government | Autonomy | |||||
President | ||||||
• | 2005 | John Garang | ||||
• | 2005–2011 | Salva Kiir Mayardit | ||||
Legislature | Legislative Assembly | |||||
History | ||||||
• | Established | 9 July 2005 | ||||
• | Independence | 9 July 2011 | ||||
Area | ||||||
• | 2008 | 619,745 km2(239,285 sq mi) | ||||
Population | ||||||
• | 2008 | 8,260,490 | ||||
Density | 13.3 /km2 (34.5 /sq mi) |
Southern Sudan (Arabic: حكومة جنوب السودان Ḥukūmatu Janūbi s-Sūdān) was an autonomous region consisting of the ten southern states of Sudan between its formation in July 2005 and independence as the Republic of South Sudan in July 2011. The autonomous government was initially established in Rumbek and later moved to Juba. It was bordered by Ethiopia to the east; Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south; and the Central African Republic to the west. To the north lies the predominantly Arab and Muslim region directly under the control of the central government. The region's autonomous status was a condition of a peace agreement between the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) and the Government of Sudan represented by the National Congress Party ending the Second Sudanese Civil War. The conflict was Africa's longest running civil war.
Egypt, under the rule of Khedive Isma'il Pasha, first attempted to colonise the region in the 1870s, establishing the province of Equatoria in the southern portion. Egypt's first governor was Samuel Baker, commissioned in 1869, followed by Charles George Gordon in 1874 and by Emin Pasha in 1878. The Mahdist War of the 1880s destabilised the nascent province, and Equatoria ceased to exist as an Egyptian outpost in 1889. Important settlements in Equatoria included Lado, Gondokoro, Dufile and Wadelai. In 1947, British hopes to join the southern part of Sudan with Uganda were dashed by the Juba Conference, to unify northern and southern Sudan.