History

Sudan's decades-long civil war ended officially in 2005.  The peace agreement stipulated that the people of the South could vote in 2011 on whether they wanted to become a separate nation, making any future Civil War a mere War.

The vote is scheduled to begin on 9 January and last for a week.  Unbelievably, my sources at the Ministry tell me that it is likely to go ahead as planned, which would be an unexpected triumph for administration in these parts.

The referendum will almost certainly make South Sudan the newest country on earth, and this two-horse town a capital city.

For more info, I would urge you to avoid Douglas Johnson's The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars. A copy of this 234 page textbook exists in most guesthouses in Juba with the last 220 pages in mint condition.

Recent politics is complicated, with a variety of movements with incredibly similar names popping up here and there to take pot shots at each other, much like the People's Front of Judaea and its rivals in the Life of Brian.  I'm not sure if you get murdered for discussing these matters on the internet so I'll let someone else conduct that practical experiment and will leave it there for now.