Conflicts to Watch in The New Millennium

part of the conflict. Rivalry among Dinka factions led by the President and Paul Malong
Awan have also led to fighting. In August 2018, another power sharing agreement came
into effect.
About 400,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the war, including notable
atrocities such as the 2014 Bentiu massacre. Although both men have supporters from
across South Sudan's ethnic divides, subsequent fighting has had ethnic undertones.
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 has soared the
number of people facing starvation to 6 million with famine breaking out in some
areas. The country’s economy has also been devastated. According to the IMF, real
income has halved since 2013 and inflation is more than 300% per annum.
Previous Rebellions
In 2010, after a disputed election, George Athor led the South Sudan Democratic
Movement in rebellion against the government. The same year, a faction of the South
Sudan Democratic Movement, called the Cobra Faction, led by David Yau Yau rebelled
against the government they accused of being prejudiced against the Murle. His faction
signed a cease-fire with the government in 2011 and his militia was reintegrated into the
army but he then defected again in 2012. After the army's notorious 2010 disarmament
campaign with widespread abuses of the Shilluk people, who were alleging persecution
by the ruling Dinka, John Uliny from the Shilluk people began a rebellion, leading
the Upper Nile faction of the South Sudan Democratic Movement. Gabriel Tang, who
led a militia allied to Khartoum during the Second Sudanese Civil War, clashed regularly
with the SPLA until 2011 when his soldiers were reintegrated into the national army. In
2011, Peter Gadet led a rebellion with the South Sudan Liberation Army, but was
reintegrated into the army the same year. In a strategy of co-option known as "big tent",
the government often buys off community militia and pardons its leaders. Others call the
use of rebellion to receive public office as "bad culture" and an incentive to rebel.
President Consolidates Power
After rumors about a planned coup surfaced in Juba in late 2012, South Sudanese
President Salva Kiir began reorganizing the senior leadership of his government, party,
and military in an unprecedented scale. In January 2013, Kiir replaced the inspector
general of the national police service with a lieutenant from the army and dismissed six
deputy chiefs of staff and 29 major generals in the army. In February 2013, Kiir retired
an additional 117 army generals but this was viewed as troublesome in regards to a
power grab by others. Kiir had also suggested that his rivals were trying to revive the
rifts that had provoked infighting in the 1990s. In July 2013, Kiir dismissed Vice
President Riek Machar, one-time leader of the Nasir revolt, along with his entire cabinet.
Kiir suspended the SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum Okech and forbade him
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