There’s not much to celebrate on the fourth anniversary of South Sudan’s founding. There’s not much to celebrate on the fourth anniversary of South Sudan’s founding. There’s not much to celebrate on the fourth anniversary of South Sudan’s founding. There’s not much to celebrate on the fourth anniversary of South Sudan’s founding.
“Unless they are held accountable for their crimes, the ethnic violence will continue to engulf this young country, with UN peacekeepers left to pick up the pieces.”
— Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. Violence in South Sudan escalates as tensions mount between the Nuer and Dinka.

Ambushed in South Sudan

The war in South Sudan began in murky circumstances in mid-December, when tribal factions within the country’s army, the SPLA, began fighting each other in the center of the capital, Juba. The SPLA quickly fractured into two camps: an insurgency drawn from members of former vice president Riek Machar’s Nuer tribe and troops who remained loyal to President Salva Kiir, of the Dinka tribe. Both sides have been accused of committing gross human rights abuses during the conflict. VICE News arrived in Juba and found the army desperate to dispel rumors that rebels were advancing on the capital. Soldiers were keen to take our correspondents on a trip with them into the bush to recapture the strategic city of Bor from the rebels… only the raid didn’t turn out quite as they had expected.

Watch