A rather worrisome trend in South Sudan, the world’s newest country, has seen the country slide nearer and nearer to genocide and a civil war continuing to grow worse, after a peace agreement had deteriorated earlier in the year. The ongoing violence is made worse by the ethnic conflict present in the nation- the 2 dominant ethnic groups, the Nuer and the Dinka, have a history of clashes and ethnic cleansing present between the two. Although the UN has tried to help, the lawlessness present in the country has hindered their peacekeeping efforts. In recent months, some of the violence has turned towards the UN peacekeepers and other international aid workers, with attacks on UN convoys and theft from World Food Program warehouses. The national government has become more unhelpful towards the UN peacekeeping forces, accusing them of aiding rebel groups. The situation of South Sudan’s neighbors also helps to worsen the conflict. Countries such as Eithiopia, which shares a land border with South Sudan, is currently in a state of emergency, and cannot handle the vast amounts of refugees the conflict is generating. While many had hoped that the conflict in South Sudan wouldn’t escalate, the violence in the capital of Juba, and continuing clashes in the rest of the country, has shown that the world’s newest nation has dark times ahead.
