Genocide Underestimated In Today's Society

Genocides are greatly underestimated in today’s society, when people think of genocide their minds go toward more well known and influential genocides, such as the Holocaust. Backing up a bit, a genocide is a deliberate killing of a large group of people, generally based on ethnic and/or religious affiliations. This can be anywhere from how someone looks, or how they lead their own lives, or even just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some people might think genocides are a thing of the past, but don't realize that they are occurring right this very minute. The second biggest genocide that is happening today, is the conflict in South Sudan.
South Sudan and Sudan began as a single nation, on January 1st, 1956, simply called Sudan. …show more content…
During the civil war, the 60 some ethnic groups in South Sudan put aside their differences, to fight the north. Yet once independence was gained, they continued their hostile attitudes toward one another. The two largest ethnic groups are the Dinka (35%) and the Nuer (15%). The South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir, is a Dinka, but appointed Riek Machar, a Nuer, as vice president, as a way to express unity among the new nations ethnic groups. Machar soon started to berate Kiir’s policies, and proceeded to threaten running against him in the next election. This escalated to all out threats between the two groups, and in 2013 a second civil war began. With troops loyal to Kiir (Dinka) fighting forces loyal to Machar (Nuer), they also involved some militias (mainly the Janjaweed), and encouraged violence from the forces toward the citizens. More than 1,000 were killed and another 100,000 displaced, in the first week of fighting, and has only gotten worse, with estimations around 2 million killed and 4 million displaced today. With fighting in Jonglei, South Sudan has displaced tens of thousands and cut off life-saving aid to more than 100,000