South Sudan Independence

Of the many issues left to be worked out between North and South Sudan before secession, the question of citizenship is one of the most personal and, among those with strong links to both North and South, urgent. The northern and southern governments are currently locked in discussions over a host of issues that will face the two countries and their citizens, and, given the high stakes, the talks have transpired largely out of the public eye. Absent public reassurances from the NCP or the SPLM, many Sudanese remain in the dark about their legal status and rights after the split.  Read More »

With less than 100 days left before South Sudan’s independence, the situation in the border region of Abyei has only become more combustible. In the last month, Abyei residents witnessed violence that led over 20,000 people to flee their homes, while in recent weeks, satellite imagery and statements from the U.S. and U.N. confirm the escalation of military activity in and around the volatile area.

With time running out for the two parties to reach agreement on a political solution to Abyei, Sudan expert Douglas Johnson provides the new report, "Abyei: Sudan's West Bank," outlining one possible path forward.  Read More »

Yesterday marked the day when the African Union High Level Implementation Panel had hoped the two Sudanese ruling parties would reach an agreement on the status of Abyei.

Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended the North-South civil war, residents of this volatile border region should have been given the right to decide whether Abyei should be administered by the northern or southern government through a referendum. That option has been discarded by international mediators who are now working toward an agreement on Abyei’s status through high-level negotiations with the Sudanese and South Sudanese Presidents Omar al-Bashir and Salva Kiir.  Read More »

Testimony collected through interviews conducted by Enough among displaced Ngok Dinka communities in the region illustrate the human impact of the ongoing stalemate over Abyei. The interviews also demonstrate pervasiveness of the perception among Ngok Dinka that SAF forces and allied militias, acting on orders of the northern government, are intent on eliminating them – if not by killing them, then by forcing them off the land for good. These fears reveal just how far trust has deteriorated in Abyei, raising the likelihood of continued conflict.  Read More »

A key democratic process in the volatile Sudanese border state of Blue Nile has suffered from manipulation by the two ruling Sudanese parties, the Carter Center recently warned.

The process, known as popular consultations, is mandated by the 2005 peace agreement, or CPA, that ended the North-South civil war, and is meant to ascertain whether the people of two border states, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, accept their part of the peace agreement—and the economic, security, and political arrangements included—as the final resolution of their long-standing grievances against Khartoum.  Read More »

Members of the Sudanese diaspora turned out in front of the White House last Friday for a rally to raise awareness about the continued violence in the disputed region. The passionate group, called together by Abyei Solidarity and the Abyei Association in the United States, hoped to encourage the U.S. government to utilize its resources to ensure peace and to support the full implementation of the Abyei Protocol before the Comprehensive Peace Agreement expires in July.  Read More »

Three and a half months from now, the world's newest nation will be born: the Republic of Southern Sudan. Heady times for a people who have fought for 50 years for freedom, and won the right to vote in what was a peaceful independence referendum in January. But this road to freedom is filled with danger points, none more so than Abyei, the hotly disputed Connecticut-sized territory wedged within the border between North and South. Mia Farrow and I wrote this post based on our recent trips to Abyei.  Read More »

The Abyei region, long anticipated to be a trouble spot in post-referendum Sudan, has lived up to the expectations, creating an impasse in high-level political talks and erupting in skirmishes on the ground between various forces loyal to the North and the South.

Enough field researcher Mayank Bubna has made numerous trips to the contested region since South Sudan’s vote in January, and he filed a new field dispatch based on interviews there.  Read More »

Two months since South Sudan’s overwhelming vote for secession, a debate has heated up over the type of political arrangements that will govern the soon-to-be new state. The conversation—largely between the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, or SPLM, and opposition parties and civil society—has centered around who and what will govern the South during its transitional phase, which lasts from independence on July 9 until new elections are held.  Read More »

Two months into the post-referendum period, and just four months until Sudan splits, the list of contentious issues the North and South need to work through isn’t getting any shorter. Rather, presidential level talks mediated by the African Union high-level panel were called off this week as the southern ruling party unveiled a collection of documents it says prove the National Congress Party is backing of southern militias.  Read More »