Maggie Fick's blog

Hundreds gathered on a rainy morning in Sudan’s southern capital of Juba to mark the countdown to southern Sudan’s self-determination referendum.  Read More »

If history is any indication, Abyei will continue to be a volatile flashpoint in Sudan, with local populations bearing the brunt of higher-level disputes between Khartoum and Juba.  Read More »

Despite the recent efforts of the National Congress Party to “make unity attractive” to southerners anxious to cast their votes in the upcoming self-determination referendum, the resounding sentiment of southerners still seems to rest in the “separation” camp.  Read More »

Before the elections are shelved and forgotten, it’s worth considering the lessons that all parties could learn from the process, given that it in the South, it was in some ways a “dry run” for the referendum.  Read More »

Don’t miss out on the insights from The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof in his latest dispatch from Sudan. Here are a few key quotes and takeaways from this important piece.  Read More »

If you read the recent Economist article that cavalierly proclaimed Sudan’s elections to be “horrid” in the North and “more or less fair” in the South, please think again.  Read More »

Today, Sudan’s National Electoral Commission pushed back the announcement of official results for the country’s first multi-party elections in 24 years.  Read More »

A new report from the venerable Small Arms Survey takes a close and informed look at drivers of armed violence and inter-communal conflict in southern Sudan.  Read More »

The SPLM’s Dr. Itto made a compelling case yesterday that the National Electoral Commission, or NEC, could have done more to anticipate and resolve election irregularities prior to the start of polling “if they had had the will to do something.”  Read More »