South Sudan

In July 2011 Africa’s largest country, Sudan, split into two and with that South Sudan, the world's newest country, was born.

The birthing process was a violent and bloody one. For decades the people of South Sudan have known little but war as they fought for independence from the north – and sadly it didn't take long for the infant nation to turn on itself, with a civil war erupting between the new government and various rebel groups.

South Sudan is one of the poorest and least developed nations on the planet, but the very fact that South Sudan remains such an unknown is the thing that will likely attract the first visitors back here. Until stability is established, however, even the most intrepid travellers will have to wait to be amazed by its wealth of tribal groups and excited by its national parks packed with vast numbers of large mammals.