science

South Sudan

South Sudan is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand South Sudan rather than just read about it. In short: South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Sudan to the north, Ethiopia to the east, Kenya to the southeast, Uganda to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southwest, and the Central African Republic to the west.

Key takeaways

South Sudan belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect South Sudan to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of South Sudan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Sudan to the north, Ethiopia to the east, Kenya to the southeast, Uganda to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southwest, and the Central African Republic to the west. South Sudan's diverse landscape includes vast plains and plateaus, dry and tropical savannahs, inland floodplains, and forested mountains. The Nile River system is the defining physical feature of the country, running south to north across its center, which is dominated by a large swamp known as the Sudd. South Sudan has an estimated population of just over 12.7 million in 2024. Juba is the capital and largest city. Sudan was occupied by Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty in the 1800s and governed as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium from 1899 until Sudanese independence in 1956. Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. The Second Sudanese Civil War broke out in 1983 and ended in 2005 with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed. South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011, following 98.8% support for independence in a January 2011 referendum. It is the most recent sovereign state with widespread recognition as of 2026. South Sudan descended into the South Sudanese Civil War from 2013 to 2018, enduring rampant human rights abuses, including forced displacement, ethnic massacres, and killings of journalists by various parties. It has since been governed by a coalition formed by leaders of the former warring factions, Salva Kiir Mayardit (Sudan People's Liberation Movement or SPLM) and Riek Machar (Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition or SPLM-IO). The country continues to recover from the war while experiencing ongoing and systemic ethnic violence. The South Sudanese population is composed mostly of Nilotic peoples spanning a variety of ethnic and linguistic groups. It is demographically among the youngest nations in the world, with roughly half its people under 18 years old. The majority of inhabitants adhere to Christianity or various traditional indigenous faiths, with a sizeable Muslim minority. South Sudan is a member of the United Nations, African Union, East African Community, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. It is one of the least developed countries in the world, ranking the lowest in the Human Development Index. The South Sudanese economy has historically produced the world's lowest nominal GDP per capita.

Etymology The name Sudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān (بلاد السودان), or the "Land of the Blacks". The term was first used by Arab traders, historians and geographers.

History

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with South Sudan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what South Sudan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to South Sudan before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about South Sudan ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of South Sudan

In research: South Sudan appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses South Sudan in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: South Sudan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2011 establishments in South Sudan, Countries and territories where English is an official language, Countries in Africa, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for South Sudan outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study South Sudan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what South Sudan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain South Sudan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is South Sudan in simple terms?

Why does South Sudan matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study South Sudan?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on South Sudan.