A Tragedy in South Sudan

“Casting my vote for independence will be a bullet aimed straight at the heart of the problem,” said Middlebury Institute alumnus Mawour Dior MAIPS ‘10 when he returned home to Sudan to participate in a referendum for independence and the creation of South Sudan in July 2011. Splitting the nation seemed for him and many others the only way to end decades of brutal civil war. Six years later, the world’s youngest nation is a failed stated with millions facing starvation, tens of thousands killed, and no end in sight for widening ethnic violence. How did it all go so wrong so quickly?