Conflicts to Watch in The New Millennium

from leaving Juba or speaking to the media. The decrees elicited fears of political
unrest, with Machar claiming that Kiir's move was a step towards dictatorship and
announcing that he would challenge Kiir in the 2015 presidential election. He said that if
the country is to be united, it cannot tolerate "one man's rule." Kiir disbanded all of the
top-level organs of the SPLM party, including the Political Bureau, the National
Convention and the National Liberation Council in November 2013. He cited their failed
performance and the expiration of their term limits.
Ethnic Tension
In 2010, Dennis Blair, then 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 2011, there was fighting between the Murle and the Lou
Nuer, mostly over raiding cattle and abducting children to raise as their own. The Nuer
White Armyreleased a statement stating its intention to "wipe out the entire Murle tribe
on the face of the earth as the only solution to guarantee long-term security of Nuer's
cattle".
Notably, in the Pibor massacre, an estimated 900 to 3000 people were killed in Pibor.
Although Machar and Kiir are both members of the SPLM, they stem from different
tribes with a history of conflict. Kiir is an ethnic Dinka, while Machar is an ethnic Nuer.
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