South Sudan’s Deadlock Spirals Into Violence—Why America Must Watch Closely

In the heart of Africa, South Sudan—the world’s youngest nation born in 2011—stands perilously close to unraveling into another devastating conflict. The United Nations’ top peacekeeping official recently warned that entrenched political deadlock has ignited sharp escalations in violence, placing a fragile country already battered by civil war on a “dangerous precipice.” How Did We Get Here—and Why Should America Care? The promise of freedom and self-determination after decades of conflict raised hopes for peace in this oil-rich but ethnically divided country. Yet these hopes were crushed when ethnic rivalries between President Salva Kiir’s Dinka faction and former Vice President...