The African continent rarely appears in Japan’s news media, but if you were asked which country in Africa is “in the news,” which would come to mind first? Many people would probably think of “South Sudan.” In the past few years, it has frequently come up in Japan’s international reporting.

Market in South Sudan [Gregg Carlstrom/Flickr] ( CC BY-NC 2.0 )

In fact, a look at the international section headlines of the Asahi Shimbun in 2016 shows that among African country names, “South Sudan” appeared the most. The share was 28.2%—about a quarter. South Sudan was one of the African countries attracting the most attention in Japanese coverage.

In second place was Egypt, with most articles about the retrial of former President Morsi, who had received life and death sentences for involvement in leaking state secrets and a prison break, and about an air crash suspected to be terrorism. There was also relatively frequent reporting on Libya and Tunisia, with North Africa accounting for about 40% of all coverage of Africa. Conversely, reporting was sparse on countries facing major armed conflicts such as Somalia, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo—even though the DRC produced the world’s largest number of internally displaced people in 2016. Somalia and Nigeria, like South Sudan, also suffered large-scale humanitarian crises that were prominently highlighted by the UN. Notably, only seven African countries had three or more articles written about them in 2016 (※1). In that context, why did South Sudan attract the most attention?

One obvious reason is the relationship between Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and South Sudan. Since independence in 2011, around 17,000 troops have been dispatched by the UN to South Sudan to serve in a peacekeeping mission. Among them, Japan dispatched about 300 SDF personnel between 2011 and 2017. Now, take a look at the graph below showing the content of reporting on South Sudan. 

This time, we examined all articles in the morning edition of the Asahi Shimbun since 2011 that had “South Sudan” in the headline. Among them, by character count, articles related to Japan (methodology/criteria:) accounted for over 50%, and articles that included the term “PKO” (UN peacekeeping operations) were close to half.

Furthermore, there are many Japan-related articles whose headlines do not include “PKO” but whose actual content involves PKO (for example: “SDF provides medical and water supply aid within UN compound; South Sudan, switching due to worsening security” (December 23, 2013, international section); “Japan to extend SDF dispatch to South Sudan” (January 31, 2015, general section); and “Stray bullet at GSDF camp? South Sudan” (July 22, 2016, general section), etc.).

From the line graph below, you can also see that the rises and falls in the number of Japan-related articles and those containing the term “PKO” track each other.

From this, we can say that among articles mentioning South Sudan, about half are related to Japan, particularly PKO. Even when coverage is labeled “about South Sudan,” in many cases it is effectively “also about Japan.”

The line graph above reveals something else as well: the rises and falls in the number of Japan-related articles (including those with “PKO”) and those not related to Japan broadly coincide. When coverage is high for one, it is likewise high for the other; when low, both are low. Is there some connection here? Does the period of extremely low coverage mean that “nothing happened” in South Sudan?

No. Behind the scant coverage, many events were unfolding. After the latter half of 2011, when reporting on South Sudan itself—not directly related to Japan—declined, South Sudan experienced episodes of intense conflict.

The village of Lukongole in Jonglei State, 300 km from the capital Juba. In 2011, the power struggle between the Murle people living in this village and the rival Lou Nuer intensified. In August, 600 people were killed, and in December, 3,000 people died. Various power struggles that should have been set aside at the time of independence in July 2011 flared up again without restraint. As a result, roughly 100,000 civilians in Jonglei State left their homes and became displaced. The state was placed under a state of emergency and brought under strict government control.

A South Sudanese soldier carrying a machine gun [punghi /shutterstock.com]

Nor was it only within South Sudan. In 2012, a border conflict with Sudan (the Heglig Crisis) broke out. The Abyei area, left unresolved before independence, contains oil fields, and the two countries deepened their dispute over its sovereignty. In March, South Sudan’s government forces suddenly launched a military incursion, and Sudan responded with airstrikes in April. As the confrontation intensified day by day, the UN Security Council, seeing that South Sudan’s very “independence” might be in jeopardy, adopted a resolution in May calling for a ceasefire. Even so, the confrontation continued, and by August about 200,000 refugees had been created. Ultimately, both countries’ troops withdrew from the Abyei area only in March 2013.

In 2013, a power struggle between President Kiir (still in office) and then–Vice President Machar escalated into a major conflict. The confrontation between government forces on the president’s side and rebel forces on the vice president’s side was waged largely around the capital, Juba. Several cities fell under rebel control; thousands of civilians were killed; and even more were forced to flee. Although the two sides signed a ceasefire in January 2014, fighting continued thereafter. In August of the same year, peace talks resumed in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

Vice President Machar (left), then on the opposition side, and President Kiir (right), on the government side, smile and shake hands at the formation of a transitional government (April 29, 2016) [United Nations Photo/flickr] (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

These events were scarcely covered in Japan’s reporting on South Sudan. It is true that coverage of South Sudan itself increased temporarily from December 2013 to January 2014. However, there were almost no articles about the conflict in Jonglei State or the North–South Sudan border conflict. In 2013 in particular, aside from a single article in April, there was no reporting until November—and the reporting in November did not focus on the conflict.

The period when coverage of South Sudan fell drastically does not mean nothing happened in the country. Major events, including large-scale conflicts, unquestionably occurred. Yet the volume of coverage remained overwhelmingly low. Because there was no Japan-related angle drawing attention, reporting on South Sudan itself was not carried out. It seems that articles not directly related to Japan were not reported unconditionally.

Africa can be said to suffer from a lack of coverage. Among the countries on this continent, South Sudan appeared in the media relatively frequently. However, more than half of that coverage was related to Japan, and even when it was not, it was during periods when Japan-related topics were in the spotlight. Even in the face of large-scale conflicts, if there is no coverage involving Japan, it goes unreported. A Japan-centric focus in reporting obscures parts of the world. Even if it is important in international reporting to view events through one’s national lens, concerns remain: when conflicts and other events occur, they may not seem directly related to PKO at first, but you never know when or where they will have an impact. To understand how an issue relates to one’s own country, it is indispensable to grasp the whole picture. We should not be reassured just because a country’s name comes up frequently. We need to pay attention not only to the frequency of reporting but also to its content—what is being reported.

On May 27, about 40 Ground Self-Defense Force personnel who had remained on the ground until the end returned to Haneda Airport, bringing to a close five years and four months of “SDF PKO” in South Sudan. However, conflict continues in South Sudan, and soldiers from countries around the world continue to serve there as part of PKO.

Now that Japan’s PKO has ended, will South Sudan also disappear from the news?

[Footnotes]

(※１) African countries and regions with three or more articles in the international section in 2016: South Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique

Writer: Tadahiro Inoue

Graphics: Yosuke Tomino