South Sudan flare-up

• South Sudan is in turmoil once again- the reason behind is not because of the inter-ethnic contest for political supremacy, but a larger tussle for the control and diversion of South Sudan’s rich energy and mineral resources.
• This has also resulted in death of three Indian UN peacekeepers.
• More than 500 people have so far been killed amid fears that a civil war may be on the cards.
• The fighting has coincided with attacks on certain oil companies, signalling that the brewing political struggle could mask a larger tussle for control over the country’s resources. Land-locked South Sudan exports around 220,000 barrels a day from reserves that are the third highest after Nigeria and Angola in sub-Saharan Africa.

More about South Sudan & Sudan’s Conflict:

• South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011 as the outcome of a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa’s longest-running civil war.
• An overwhelming majority of South Sudanese voted in a January 2011 referendum to secede and become Africa’s first new country since Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1993.
• The new nation stands to benefit from inheriting the bulk of Sudan’s oil wealth, but continuing disputes with Khartoum and a lack of economic development cloud its immediate future.
• Long based on subsistence agriculture, South Sudan’s economy is now highly oil-dependent. While an estimated 75% of all the former Sudan’s oil reserves are in South Sudan, the refineries and the pipeline to the Red Sea are in Sudan.
• In January 2012, the breakdown of talks on the sharing of oil revenues led South Sudan to halt oil production and halve public spending on all but salaries.
• A deal in March 2013 provided for Sudan to resume pumping South Sudanese oil in May, and created a demilitarised border zone.
• Despite the potential oil wealth, South Sudan is one of Africa’s least developed countries. However, the years since the 2005 peace accord ushered in an economic revival and investment in utilities and other infrastructure.