South Sudan

South Sudan, Africa’s youngest state, holds natural systems of global scale and many identities shaped around cattle, farming, fishing and rivers. Juba on the White Nile is a fast-growing, dusty, multilingual capital where markets, music and restaurants connect people from across the country and region.

To the north stretches the Sudd, one of the world’s great wetland systems—a seasonal world of channels, grass, fish, birds and Nilotic communities. In the east, the Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape combines savanna, floodplain and woodland. Wildlife surveys estimate that about six million white-eared kob, tiang and Mongalla gazelle move through it; in July 2026 it became South Sudan’s first World Heritage Site and was simultaneously listed as World Heritage in Danger.

Those numbers are staggering, but at the verification date official authorities advise against all travel because of armed violence, crime and unpredictable politics. Even wildlife expeditions require heavy professional infrastructure and are not backpacking trips. Do not turn communities into tribal exhibits or migration into a reason to ignore reality. Learn, support conservation built with residents and wait for conditions in which visiting can be safer and more beneficial.