South Sudan marks anniversary of 2011 independence from Sudan on July 9

South Sudan observes 9 July as its independence day, marking the anniversary of 9 July 2011, when it formally became the world’s newest country and Africa’s 54th independent state, separating from Sudan after a long and devastating civil war.

The split followed a January 2011 referendum in which 98.8 per cent of South Sudanese voters backed independence, the culmination of a peace process that began with a 2005 agreement ending the Second Sudanese Civil War, a conflict that killed an estimated two million people and devastated southern communities through years of aerial bombing and violent raids.

On the day itself, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the capital, Juba, to celebrate as the country’s new flag was raised for the first time. South Sudan formally joined the United Nations as its 193rd member state five days later, on 14 July 2011.

9 July is also a national holiday elsewhere in the world. Argentina marks its own independence day on the same date, commemorating the Congress of Tucumán’s 1816 declaration of independence from Spain — meaning two countries on different continents, founded nearly two centuries apart, share the same national day.

In North America, 9 July also holds significance for Canada’s Inuit population: Nunavut Day, observed on this date, commemorates the 1993 signing of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, the largest Indigenous land claim settlement in Canadian history.