Three years have passed since South Sudan became an independent state following the civil war that had continued in Sudan since 1983. The government of President Salva Kiir marked the anniversary with a ceremony on Wednesday in the capital of Juba.

However, the youngest country on the African continent has experienced internal conflict since December, when fighting broke out between government forces and the opposition that supports former Vice President Riek Machar. The international community, especially the United States and China — the major importers of oil from South Sudan — should help the country achieve a national reconciliation to prevent it from falling into the quagmire of full-blown civil war.

Thousands of people are estimated to have been killed since the fighting erupted in December. The conflict is deepening between the Dinka people, the country's largest ethnic group of whom many are in the government's forces, and the Nuer people, many of whom belong to the opposition camp.