In honour of the world’s newest country, this week’s final blog aims to tell you just a little bit more about the small corner of East Africa that just won its independence. Happy third day of war-free self-government to the people of South Sudan!

- Due to spending more than half of the last fifty years engaged in a civil war with North Sudan, where diplomatic power lay, South Sudan is currently one of the poorest and least developed countries in Africa. Many hope this won’t last long, as the area is rich in agricultural opportunity and also has large oil deposits that could be taken advantage of.

- Are you worried about the difficulty of traveling in South Sudan? Sure, it might not be the most developed area in the world – not by a long shot – but the official language is English, which will make life relatively easy. If you can extract that visa from the Sudanese embassy, of course, which is still dealing with South Sudanese requests.

- The new president of South Sudan is Salva Kiir Mayardi, the first to hold the position since the Republic Of South Sudan formed . He’s not the most pleasant of characters, having been heavily involved in the start of the second Sudanese civil war, and recently described homosexuality as a ‘mental disease’. Still, he’s clearly a popular character, having been one of the main characters pushing through the establishment of the new country.

- The South Sudanese largely practice indigenous tribal faiths. There are also a large number of Christians, however, including new leader Salva Kiir Mayardi, and one angle on the recent civil wars is that the dispute between Christian and other ethnic groups and the Northern, predominantly Muslim faith was one of the key issues.

- South Sudan might have a lot of oil, but the dispute over the industry – which will end up around 70% on the Southern side of the border – is still a hot topic in South/North politics. The billions of dollars per year generated by the industry, one of the largest in Africa, is without doubt South Sudan’s great hope.

- Some of South Sudan’s educational and health facts make horrendous reading. Only 27% of the population currently have access to clean water. An estimated 2% currently complete primary school, and only 6% have access to teachers who’ve received any kind of training. Around 85% of the population are currently illiterate. Only 15% of the population is thought to live in sanitary conditions, and the country has the worst maternal mortality rates in the world. A 15 year old girl currently has a higher chance of dying in childbirth than finishing school.

- The cost of independence for South Sudan has been an incredibly high one in terms of human life. An estimated 2.5 million people – or around 25% of the entire population – have been killed in the two civil wars leading up to independence, and around 4 million have been forced out of their homes. When the independence vote arrived, 98% of the citizens of South Sudan voted in favour.

- The new South Sudanese flag consists of horizontal stripes, from top to bottom – black, red and green, divided by thinner white lines. A blue triangle at the pole end of the flag features a yellow star. The new national anthem talks of God, citizens cores values and the martyrs that helped the country to win independence.

- South Sudan’s initial aims for outside the borders include 34 embassies or consulates, eventually rising to 50. They’ll take some time to get off the ground, though.

- A slogan of independence in capital Juba over the last few days has been ‘just divorced’. Judging by reactions in the country, this is quite possibly the happiest divorce ever.

It all makes for pretty grim reading, but there’s no doubt amongst most political commentators in the region: South Sudan is better off going alone. Let’s hope a long-awaited peace and plenty of positivity amongst citizens will at least begin to wash away some of the harsher facts.

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