Analysis - How South Sudan leaders squandered nation-building effort

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir speaks during a news conference in Juba December 18, 2013.REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

JUBA/NAIROBI (Reuters) - At a well-attended investor conference in South Sudan's capital in early December, President Salva Kiir declared that the world's newest country was "at last safe" and open for business.

It was a bold assertion from a nation that only gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades mired in conflict. It suggested the moment had come to cap a huge international effort to build a state. But it proved spectacularly ill-timed.