Myriad United Nations agencies operate in South Sudan, helping to improve literacy, road access, health and more, but it is South Sudan’s relationship with the body’s peacekeeping mission itself, the adviser said, that is growing increasingly tense and has been punctuated by heated discussions.

Image Credit... The New York Times

The question now is whether the episodes have simply been evidence of the risks that come with operating in a country that is heavily armed and unstable after decades of civil war or evidence of something more volatile, even a growing sense of enmity.

South Sudanese officials increasingly question whether the world body is on their side, with earlier support for independence turning to criticism of the young government’s record on human rights and continuing confrontation with neighboring Sudan, from which South Sudan seceded.

The situation today stands in stark contrast to the heady optimism that followed South Sudan’s independence in July 2011. Days of celebration led to the sobering reality of trying to govern the country, Africa’s newest and one of the least developed in the world.

After decades of civil war and neglect by rulers in Sudan, landlocked South Sudan has few paved roads and little industry to speak of aside from the oil production upon which it depends for revenue. Largely rural, the country has a very young and very poor population estimated to be around 11 million, divided into more than a dozen ethnic groups.

Sudan and South Sudan each accuse the other of waging a proxy war by arming rebels groups. Conditions are particularly dire in Jonglei, a large, swampy territory where ethnic conflict is keeping at least 100,000 civilians from receiving aid.

“The fighting is threatening the lives of ordinary people and has reduced the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide urgently needed help,” Valerie Amos, the United Nations’ under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said in a statement last week. She called on all parties to “create the necessary security environment conducive for aid delivery.”