The birth of South Sudan: the world's newest country faces enormous challenges.

• Author: Gettleman, Jeffrey
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

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After five decades of guerrilla struggle and 2 million lives lost, flags are flying proudly in Juba, South Sudan's new capital city, and the new national anthem is blasting all over town.

On July 9, the Republic of South Sudan became the world's newest nation, and Africa's 54th state. The country's independence from Sudan was the result of a U.S.-brokered 2005 peace deal between the Arab-controlled government in the north and rebels in the black-African south.

"This is a beautiful day for Africa," said Joseph Deiss of Switzerland, president of the United Nations General Assembly, to the throngs gathered in Juba to celebrate. "This is a remarkable achievement, a long-standing conflict has been stopped."

But from the moment of its birth, South Sudan has faced extraordinary challenges. A majority of its people live on less than a dollar a day. A 15-year-old girl has a higher chance of dying in childbirth than she does of having finished elementary school. More than 10 percent of children do not make it to their fifth birthday. About three-quarters of adults cannot read. Only 1 percent of households have a bank account.

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No Electricity, No Running Water

The South Sudan government says 83 percent of its people live in thatched-roof huts. Most villages have no electricity and no running water.

Beyond that, the new nation of 9 million people faces several serious insurrections within its own sprawling territory and ongoing hostilities with Sudan in the north, its longtime enemy from which it seceded.

It is clearly an underdog story.

More than 2,300 people have been killed in ethnic and rebel violence this year, with at least a half-dozen rebel groups--some with thousands of fighters--prowling the bush, attacking government soldiers, terrorizing civilians, and stealing cattle and even children.

Ethnicity is a consistent fault line here. The government is dominated by the Dinka, the biggest group in South Sudan, and some of the toughest rebel armies are commanded by members of the Nuer, historically a rival tribe.

Many people fear that after the glow of independence wears off, the Nuer and the Dinka will start fighting each other. And even within the Dinka-dominated government forces, there are deep problems.

Government troops routinely take sides in local land disputes and fights over cattle, and recently soldiers have been hijacking U.N. trucks hauling food. Hunger is a critical challenge: More than a...