South Sudan is not Africa

This is not an article on South Sudan, which is just as well because the conflicts there are almost fractal in their complexity. The mini-war last weekend between the forces of President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar, which killed more than 270 people and saw tanks, artillery and helicopter gunships used in the capital, Juba, is part of a pattern that embraces the whole country.

The four days of heavy fighting began on Friday, July 8, with a disagreement between the two men's large forces of bodyguards outside the State House where they were meeting, and rapidly escalated to an all-out clash between all of Kiir's and Machar's troops in the capital. Nobody was surprised, because the peace deal last August, which ended a two-year civil war that killed tens of thousands across the country, was never very secure.

After a shaky ceasefire was agreed, Kiir said, "Making South Sudan glorious will only happen if we see ourselves as South Sudanese first rather than tribal or political groupings," which is the sort of thing that leaders are obliged to say after a pointless clash like this. It's true, too, but in South Sudan it is very hard to do.

Last weekend was the fifth anniversary of South Sudan's independence from Sudan, but celebrations had already been canceled before the shooting started because the government couldn't afford them. The country has some oil but virtually no other exports, and was hard-hit by last year's collapse in the oil price.

The real reason for its poverty, however, is war. The country that is now South Sudan has been at war for 42 of the past 60 years. British colonialists included it in what we now call Sudan for administrative convenience, but the dominant population in the much bigger northern part...