The minimum you must know

South Sudan is a peaceful, stable modestly advancing non-coastal country, with Sudan to the north, Ethiopia to the east and Congo to the south. The country clearly has peaceful and cooperative leadership at the United Nations who are emphasizing unity, and who patterned "peace" very eloquently.

South Sudan has one of the youngest populations on earth. The average age there is 18 years old. Not much is known about the country in Europe and the United States about why, except for historical accounts of internal conflict that apparently lasted most recently from 2013 until 2020. It's possible competing factions led by Salva Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar took the lives of many adults. Or it's possible the population seems young to foreigners for other reasons such as health. There are probably young refugees from Congo as well. The factions are reportedly at peace with each other today. Salva Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar continue to rule the country.

South Sudan has external challenges as well. It's far enough away from Libya, Djibouti and Yemen to stay uninvolved with their developments. However, Djibouti is important to the only water trade route for the Sudanese people between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. So events there do affect South Sudan. South Sudan more importantly borders the Congo, which was frequently destabilized by severe civil conflicts in Rwanda, and where more than five million people lost their lives. Peace and stability throughout the region are important as a result.

The Nile River separates the east and west sides of the country, which are filled mostly with wide open deserts and some forestry. The northernmost country on the river is Egypt, which occupied Sudan for a large part of its history until 1956. Afterwards a series of civil conflicts broke out that led to the division of Islamist Sudan from Christian South Sudan in 2011. Northern Sudan is a peaceful country, and one of the first to enter into the very sensitive written Abraham interfaith Peace Accords with Israel. Various peace agreements were reached leading up to that time that were supported by economic contributions from donor European countries.

South Sudan has very talented diplomatic leadership. The country is currently internally peaceful and has optimistic diplomatic relations globally.