Kulo State

Kulo State Isifunda sase-Kulo (isiKulo)
Flag Cowskin shield
Status	Unrecognised state
Capital and largest city	Yokhonzela
Official languages	isiKulo
Ethnic groups	Predominantly amaKulo
Religion	Sotirianity Irfan
Demonym(s)	umKulo (singular) amaKulo (plural)
Government	Unitary presidential republic
• President	Dumisile Xhibeni Chacha
• Vice President	Bongdani Malusi
Legislature	Congress
Establishment
• Establishment of Saint-Romauld-Culloland Protectorate	March 8, 1851
• Rhissassi Expedition	1869–1880
• Split	1940s
• Kulo Insurgency	January 19, 1971
• Declaration of independence	August 20, 1980
• Current constitution	December 10, 2009
Area
•	111,516 km2 (43,057 sq mi)
Population
• 2013 estimate	2,091,882
GDP (nominal)	estimate
• Total	$1.3 billion
• Per capita	$612
Currency	Kulo State mark[a]
Most of the country's residents operate under an informal economy.

The Kulo State, also known as KwaKulo is an unrecognised state in eastern Bahia, comprised mainly of ethnically-amaKulo territory that spans the borders of Garambura, Maucha and Yemet. Much of the country's territory, including its capital, Yokhonzela, is located in the legally-recognised borders of Yemet, and has done so since the Kulo Insurgency in the 1970s. The state has little tangible international recognition and is logistically isolated owing to the continual blockade of the 20-mile-wide Zenzele Strip, which contains the state's only coastline on the Vehemens Ocean, by the Mauchan Navy. The umKulo military is mainly comprised of old equipment left from the War of the Ibabochian Panhandle in the 1970s.

Historically, the amaKulo were a marginalised minority, both by the colonial powers and their successive post-colonial states. Due to their low population, amaKulo minorities were neglected and often discriminated against by Mauchan, Yemeti and veRwizi administrators during the period of the United Bahian Republic, leaving the group as one of the most deprived ethnic groups in Bahia. Yokhonzela was subject to increasing desertification, food insecurity, as well as high rates of disease and death. The instability in the region caused by the War of the Ibabochian Panhandle in 1968 and the Garamburan War of Independence in 1969 brought about the necessary power vacuum that allowed the amaKulo peoples of Yemet and Maucha to enter open insurgency against the governments at the start of 1971. Yemet's National Salvation Government under Ezera Biruh attempted to deal a quick defeat to the rebels, but a lack of Yemeti preparation, knowledge of the terrain by the locals and months of prior planning led to the Yemeti government suffering a critical defeat at the Battle of Mabengela in August 1971. The rebels crossed into neighbouring Maucha in 1973 and were able to establish the Zenzele Strip to the Vehemens in 1974.

Most of the intense insurgent fighting had concluded by 1980, when the territory held by the rebels seceded as the Kulo State, with Kwanele Owethu as its first president. Owethu died three years later, and was replaced by Dumisile Xhibeni Chacha, who has served as president since. No Community of Nations member states recognise Kulo State in any official capacity, but the state does hold semi-official relations with other unrecognised states around the world. Intermittent fighting between the surrounding governments has continually occurred over the years, but since 2017 the insurgents and states have adhered to an unofficial truce which has seen militant activity in the area decrease. Human rights and democratic organisations have criticised the Kulo State for its widespread political repression as well as its discrimination against the local Wahuajua and Njinji minorities, many of whom have been caught up and displaced by the conflict. Rural neglect by Bahian governments has also seen some of its citizens defect to the insurgents.