South Sudanese Civil War
South Sudanese Civil War
In December 2013, President Kiir accused his former deputy Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup d'état. Machar denied trying to start a coup and fled to lead the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO). Fighting broke out between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and SPLM-IO, igniting the civil war. Ugandan troops were deployed to fight alongside the South Sudanese government. The United Nations has peacekeepers in the country as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
South Sudanese Civil War
By April 2018, it was estimated that about 400,000 people, 10.6% of which were children, had been killed in the war. This death toll includes notable atrocities, such as the 2013 Nuer massacre and the 2014 Bentiu massacre. Although both parties otherwise had supporters from across South Sudan's ethnic divides, there were strong tensions between the Dinka and Nuer, which were often violent. Kiir's Dinka ethnic group has been accused of attacking other ethnic groups and Machar's Nuer ethnic group has been accused of attacking the Dinka. More than 4 million people have been displaced, with about 1.8 million of those internally displaced, and about 2.5 million having fled to neighboring countries, especially Uganda and Sudan. Fighting in the agricultural heartland in the south of the country caused the number of people facing starvation to soar to 6 million, leading to the 2017 famine. The country's economy has also been devastated. In October 2017, the IMF reported that real income had halved since 2013 and inflation was more than 300% per annum.
Background
!A South Sudanese man holding a [HK G3, May 2011](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/SouthSudan022.jpg/250px-SouthSudan022.jpg)
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