Ethnic violence in South Sudan
part of the Sudanese nomadic conflicts
Ethnic violence in South Sudan has a long history among South Sudan's various ethnic groups. South Sudan has 64 tribes with the largest being the Dinka, who constitute about 35% of the population and predominate in government. The second largest are the Nuers. Conflict is often aggravated among nomadic groups over the issue of cattle and grazing land and is part of the wider Sudanese nomadic conflicts.
In 2010, Dennis Blair, the United States Director of National Intelligence, issued a warning that "over the next five years... a new mass killing or genocide is most likely to occur in southern Sudan." In April 2017, Priti Patel, the Secretary of the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, declared the violence in South Sudan as genocide.
Background
Nomadic raiding
Members of the Murle and Lou Nuer ethnic groups are largely nomadic cattle herders. Cattle are used as food and are used as a store of wealth. It takes 20 cows to buy a bride if a young man hopes to marry, which encourages cattle raiding. Violence between the two groups goes back generations, exacerbated by tensions over land and water.
“Ethnic violence in South Sudan” enters the record as part of the Sudanese nomadic conflicts. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ethnic, violence and South can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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