SOUTH SUDAN - Republic of South Sudan

South Sudan , officially known as the Republic of South Sudan  (Dinka:"Paguot Thudan") is a landlocked country in East-Central Africa. It is bordered to the east by Ethiopia, to the north by Sudan, to the west by the Central African Republic, to the south-west by Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south by Uganda and to the south east by Kenya. It gained independence from the Republic of the Sudan in 2011, making it the most recent sovereign state or country with widespread recognition. Its capital and largest city is Juba. It includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd, formed by the White Nile and known locally as the Bahr al Jabal (Arabic: بحر الجبل‎), meaning "Mountain Sea". 

Sudan was occupied by Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty and was governed as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium until Sudanese independence in 1956. Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon broke out, ending 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 98.83% support for independence in a January 2011 referendum. It has suffered ethnic violence and endured a civil war from 2013 until February 22, 2020, when South Sudan rivals Salva Kiir and Riek Machar struck a unity deal and formed a coalition government.

The Nilotic people of South Sudan—the Acholi, Anyuak, Bari, Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Kaligi (Arabic Feroghe), and others—first entered South Sudan sometime before the 10th century coinciding with the fall of medieval Nubia. After Sudan's first independent elections in 1958, the continued ignoring of the south by Khartoum (lack of schools, roads, bridges) led to uprisings, revolt, and the longest civil war on the continent. As of 2012, peoples include Acholi, Anyuak, Baka, Balanda Bviri, Bari, Boya, Didinga, Dinka, Jiye, Kaligi, Kuku, Lotuka, Mundari, Murie, Nilotic, Nuer, Shilluk, Toposa and Zande. Between 9 and 15 January 2011, a referendum was held to determine whether South Sudan should become an independent country and separate from Sudan. 98.83% of the population voted for independence. South Sudan formally became independent from Sudan on 9 July, although certain disputes still remained, including the division of oil revenues, as 75% of all the former Sudan's oil reserves are in South Sudan. The region of Abyei still remains disputed and a separate referendum will be held in Abyei on whether they want to join Sudan or South Sudan. The South Kordofan conflict broke out in June 2011 between the Army of Sudan and the SPLA over the Nuba Mountains. On 9 July 2011, South Sudan became the 54th independent country in Africa and since 14 July 2011, South Sudan is the 193rd member of the United Nations. The official language of South Sudan is English. There are over 60 indigenous languages, most classified under the Nilo-Saharan Language family; collectively, they represent two of the first-order divisions of Nile Sudanic and Central Sudanic.

South Sudan's protected area of Bandingilo National Park hosts the second-largest wildlife migration in the world. Surveys have revealed that Boma National Park, west of the Ethiopian border, as well as the Sudd wetland and Southern National Park near the border with Congo, provided habitat for large populations of hartebeest, kob, topi, buffalo, elephants, giraffes, and lions. South Sudan's forest reserves also provided habitat for bongo, giant forest hogs, red river hogs, forest elephants, chimpanzees, and forest monkeys. Surveys begun in 2005 by WCS in partnership with the semi-autonomous government of Southern Sudan revealed that significant, though diminished wildlife populations still exist, and that, astonishingly, the huge migration of 1.3 million antelopes in the southeast is substantially intact.

Habitats in the country include grasslands, high-altitude plateaus and escarpments, wooded and grassy savannas, floodplains, and wetlands. Associated wildlife species include the endemic white-eared kob and Nile Lechwe, as well as elephants, giraffes, common eland, giant eland, oryx, lions, African wild dogs, cape buffalo, and topi (locally called tiang). Little is known about the white-eared kob and tiang, both types of antelope, whose magnificent migrations were legendary before the civil war. The Boma-Jonglei Landscape region encompasses Boma National Park, broad pasturelands and floodplains, Bandingilo National Park, and the Sudd, a vast area of swamp and seasonally flooded grasslands that includes the Zeraf Wildlife Reserve. 

The first postage stamps for South Sudan were issued on 13 July 2011 by the Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services and should have featured the flag of South Sudan on the one South Sudanese Pound (SSP) stamp, the coat of arms of South Sudan on the 2.5 SSP stamp, and an image of John Garang, the pre-independence leader, on the 3.5 SSP stamp. Unfortunately, however, the wrong coat of arms for South Sudan appeared on the 2.5 SSP stamp, with the eagle looking to the right instead of the left, while it carries two spears instead of one spear and one spade, therefore, it was decided not to issue this stamp, but only the ones of 1 SSP and 3.5 SSP. This first set of stamps was a gift from the People's Republic of China, and was designed and printed in China by Beijing Security Printers. 

On 15 September 2017 South Sudan Post started to sell surcharged overprints on the 1 SSP National Flag and the 3.5 SSP Dr John Garang of the 1st postage stamp issue of 2011 and on the 1, 2 and 5 SSP Birds of the 2nd set of 2012/2013. Because of the rampant inflation of the South Sudanese Pound, new increased postal rates have been proposed and in line with those proposals new, increased face-values. The lower values of the 1st and 2nd issues were withdrawn late 2016 and subsequently overprinted with the new surcharged values based on the needs according to the proposed new postal rates.

The first of the closed post offices to be officially re-opened was in Torit (capital of Eastern Equatoria State) in 2010, followed on 5 July 2011 by the post office of Yambio (Western Equatoria State), on 25 July 2012 by the post office of Yei., on 20 February 2013 the PO of Maridi, a month later on 28 March 2013 the PO in Rumbek, the capital of Lakes State and two days later the PO in Aweil, the capital of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State. It has been reported that the post office of Kaya in Central Equatoria has also re-opened already in October 2010, but became operational only some time later, with only one post officer.

It is difficult to collect stamps of South Sudan, because the routing of international mail via the postal authorities in Sudan ceased in April 2012 with the discontinuation of the direct flights between Juba and Khartoum, there has been no international mail connection. No independent postal exchange office has yet been established, although the Directorate of Postal Services intended to sign an agreement with Ethiopian Airlines and Kenyan Airlines early 2012 to carry mail abroad in order to be independent of northern Sudan, but this didn't materialize. As a consequence, it is almost impossible to reach them by mail, although some incoming international mail arrives via Ethiopiaand lately especially via Kenya, while the postal authorities has no agreement with any international stamp agency for the marketing of its stamps.

South Sudan Airmail envelopes ! It is was unbelievable in the past, but now becomes true. These rarest and beautiful airmail envelopes got postmarked from Juba post office, the capital city of South Sudan. There is no working international postal system, so the international mails either will not go or travel via Kenya, sometimes Uganda. DHL, Aramex and Fedex are the main international mails and parcels carriers from Juba. My friend Abdulkarim bought the stamps from post office and sent to me via DHL, then I prepared the envelopes and sent again to him via DHL for postmarking. He again went to the post office and explained about the need and my collection, then they postmarked the envelopes and gave back to him. He sent again all the covers back to me via DHL. These are the costliest covers in my collection. My friend Martin planned to sent a cover from Uganda, with South Sudan stamps, It is succeeded.

Clearly, it is quite interesting to collect stamps from South Sudan, however, it is not easy, as South Sudan has no international mail connection at all since the routing of international mail via the postal authorities in Sudan ceased in April 2012 with the discontinuation of the direct flights between Juba and Khartoum. No independent postal exchange office has yet been established, although the Directorate of Postal Services intended to sign an agreement with Ethiopian Airlines and Kenyan Airlines early 2012 to carry mail abroad in order to be independent of northern Sudan, but this didn't materialize. As a consequence, it is almost impossible to reach them by mail, although some incoming international mail arrives via Ethiopia and lately especially via Kenya, while the postal authorities has no agreement with any international stamp agency for the marketing of its stamps.