Former Somaliland minister visits South Sudan

Posted on March 4, 2011 by admin

From Somaliland Press, March 4, 2011:

Former Somaliland’s Civil Aviation minister is scheduled to hold talks with officials from South Sudan government ahead of their official independence from Khartoum.

Mr. Ali Mohamed ‘Waran Adde” who served under President Riyale has been travelling by road using his vehicle and Somaliland license plates to cross Somaliland-Ethiopia border and Ethiopia-South Sudan border for the past month.

He told local radio stations by telephone that he encountered a lot of new and exciting things during his journey to southern Sudan. He said it was an eye opener for him.

He added he is expected to discuss general issues related to bilateral ties, like economic and trade cooperation with the South Sudanese government.

The government of Somaliland has not yet sent an official delegation from the ruling party but it has welcomed the south’s independence vote.

Somaliland believes it could use the south’s independence as a precedent as it seeks more support for its case for international recognition. Some foreign observers and politicians believe the Juba government will recognize Somaliland which will pave the way for other regional powers to follow.

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UN Deplores New Clashes in Region Disputed By North And South

Posted on March 3, 2011 by admin

From allAfrica, March 3, 2011:

A senior United Nations official today deplored renewed clashes in Sudan’s contested Abyei region, whose status North and South Sudan have pledged to solve by the end of March.

Abyei, straddling northern and southern Sudan, was due to have voted in a separate referendum in January, when the South opted for secession, on which side it would join. But failure to establish a referendum commission and lack of agreement on who could vote precluded a ballot.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Sudan Haile Menkerios said the recent fighting clearly violated the letter and spirit of agreements the two sides reached in January to resolve the dispute, and he urged them to fully implement the accords, including setting up a high-level committee to prevent a recurrence.

“The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) stands ready to assist the parties in this endeavour,” he said in a statement.

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Women, kids flee as Sudan violence kills 100

Posted on March 3, 2011 by admin

From CBS News, March 3, 2011:

Women and children fled en masse from a disputed flashpoint town between north and south Sudan after fighting this week killed more than 100 people, officials said Thursday.

Abyei has long been seen as the major sticking point between the north and south, which voted to secede in January and is on course to become the world’s newest country in July.

Abyei had been promised a separate self-determination vote, but its future is now being negotiated by officials from the north and south.

“Now all the women and children have evacuated the town. They have moved south because they expect more fighting in the town,” said Father Peter Suleiman, a Catholic priest who spoke to the Associated Press by phone from Abyei town on Thursday morning.

Col. Philip Aguer, the spokesman for Southern Sudan’s military, said more than 70 people were killed in fighting between Sunday and Tuesday. Aguer said that armed members of the Arab cattle-herding Misseriya tribe, militia fighters and northern army forces attacked several villages north of the town of Abyei.

The south blames the Khartoum government for instigating the violence.

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Southern Sudan’s Army Reports Clashes With Rebel Militia in Jonglei State

Posted on March 2, 2011 by admin

From Bloomberg, March 2, 2011:

Clashes between Southern Sudan’s army and a rebel militia in Jonglei state killed as many as 40 soldiers and civilians in renewed fighting against the forces of renegade general George Athor, army spokesman Philip Aguer said.

“The wounded may be more than 50,” Aguer said by phone today from Juba, Southern Sudan’s capital. He said he had no details about casualties among Athor’s forces in the clashes on Feb. 27.

Fighting on Feb. 9-10 between the army and Athor’s rebels killed 197 people in Jonglei, according to Southern Sudan’s ruling party. The region’s security forces have deployed troops to prevent the militia from reaching villages in the area, Aguer said.

The government of oil-rich Southern Sudan, which is due to become independent in July, signed a cease-fire agreement with Athor’s forces on Jan. 5. Paris-based Total SA owns 32.5 percent of a 118,000 square-kilometer (46,000 square-mile) concession in Jonglei and Lakes states.

At independence, Southern Sudan will assume control of about three-quarters of Sudan’s current oil production of 490,000 barrels a day, pumped mainly by China National Petroleum Corp., Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd. and India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Sudan had five billion barrels of proven oil reserves as of January 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Athor, a former chief of staff in Southern Sudan’s army, took up arms against the government after losing a state election in April.

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South Sudan launches private sector development program with World Bank Group

Posted on March 1, 2011 by admin

From Sudan Tribune, March 1:

March 01–JUBA — The emerging independent state of South Sudan has launched an ambitious program that will embark on robust development of the country’s private sector following its people’s overwhelming vote for independence from north Sudan in the recent January referendum.

The people of South Sudan, in accordance with the peace deal signed with north Sudan in 2005, voted in favour of independence, which will officially begin on 9 July 2011. Despite its huge resource potential, the region is amongst the poorest in the world. Its private sector is still in its infancy.

On Monday a joint program involving the government, the World Bank Group (WBG), part of the World Bank and a number of donor countries launched a private sector development program — described by the officials as key to development in the region.

The partnership will receive its primary funding from the governments of the Netherlands and South Sudan. It will also receive funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); and the governments of Denmark, Ireland and Norway.

The WBG also comprises of five closely associated financial institutions which include the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). The Group also includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Each institution plays a distinct role in the mission to fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the developing world.

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North battles south in disputed Sudan region

Posted on March 1, 2011 by admin

From The Miami Herald, February 28:

NAIROBI, Kenya — Fighting between southern Sudan security forces and members of an Arab tribe from the north claimed at least 10 lives Sunday and Monday in the latest threat to Sudan’s peaceful partition this summer.

The battle took place in the hotly contested Abyei region, which both southern and northern Sudan claim, and was the second major confrontation there. Fighting in January killed at least 41 people.

Abyei straddles the border between Sudan’s Arab-ruled Muslim north and the mostly non-Muslim south, which voted in January to form a separate country in July. On which side Abyei will fall is undecided.

The latest fighting began on Sunday, when a local Arab militia attacked a southern police post outside the village of Todach, killing seven southern policemen and three militiamen, according to both sides.

The police were reinforced overnight and the battle intensified on Monday, said Deng Arop Kuol, the top civil official in the area. The number of casualties on the second day of fighting was not known.

The new round of skirmishes could refocus international attention on the most dangerous part of Sudan’s shaky transition as it begins to split after 50 years of on again-off again war. The conflict ended in a 2005 peace deal establishing southern self-rule for the six years leading up to the independence referendum.

The conflict over control of Abyei has sparked bloody battles throughout Sudan’s history. Situated where the desert of the north turns into the marshes of the south, the 4,000-square-mile area was transferred to Sudan’s northern administration under British colonial rule, even though it is the homeland of the Ngok Dinka, a southern tribe.

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Original Song for South Sudan: “When the Oil is Gone”

Posted on February 24, 2011 by admin

Song for the 2011 Sudanese Referendum based out of Minneapolis

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Abyei belongs to South Sudan – SPLM official

Posted on February 19, 2011 by admin

From Sudan Tribune, February 17, 2011:

February 17, 2011 (ABYEI) – A senior official from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) from oil-producing region of Abyei said Thursday that Abyei belongs to South Sudan and that South Sudanese should not let it remain in the North.

Miyen Alor Kuol a senior member of South Sudan’s ruling party, the SPLM, said there was “no question” that Abyei should be transfered to South Sudan. Sudan’s South is due to become independent in July.

Abyei’s population was supposed to hold a referendum to determine whether the region will remain in the North or rejoin the South but differences over who will participate in the plebiscite led to it being delayed.

The Abyei referendum was agreed as part of a 2005 peace deal between former rebels the SPLM and Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP). The most important aspect of the deal was the referendum on southern independence, which went ahead peacefully and on schedule in January, resulting in a overwhelming vote for independence.

Abyei’s referendum was supposed to occur simultaneously but the two partners of the 2005 peace agreement failed to agree on who was allowed to vote. With the SPLM rejecting the NCP demand that the Misseriya ethnic group – who enter Abyei for part of the year with their cattle – be accorded full voting rights

With the referendum delayed indefinitely the two sides have so far failed to reach a political agreement on the future of the oil-producing area. However, they have agreed to it should remain in the North but only until a solution is reached before the peace agreement ends with the South’s independence in July 2011.

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SNB, Swiss Govt Help South Sudan Set Up Central Bank

Posted on February 19, 2011 by admin

From the Wall Street Journal, February 18:

The Swiss National Bank and the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs are helping the soon-to-be-independent state of South Sudan establish a central bank authority.

Banking and financial officials from South Sudan, an oil-rich area but still one of the least-developed regions in the world, attended a workshop in Zurich this week organized by the Swiss central bank and government, according to a statement released Friday, by the foreign ministry.

The participants included the head of the South Sudan negotiating team on banking and currency, and David Deng Athorbei, the minister for financial and economic planning, the ministry said.

The former heads of the central banks of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro were also present at the SNB workshop to report on the experience of other countries in setting up their monetary institutions, the ministry said.

An overwhelming 99% of the South Sudan population backed a division of Africa’s largest country in a poll conducted earlier this month as part of a peace agreement signed in 2005.

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Officials Say Rebel Attacks Kill 200 in South Sudan

Posted on February 15, 2011 by admin

From Voice of America, February 15, 2011:

Officials in southern Sudan say attacks by a rebel militia killed some 200 people last week, nearly doubling the previously announced death toll.

Pagan Amum, secretary-general of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, said Tuesday that 197 people were killed in the attacks in Fangak county, in Jonglei state.

Another official, minister of humanitarian affairs James Kok, put the death toll at 211. Both officials said most of those killed were civilians.

Fighters loyal to renegade army officer George Athor launched a series of attacks in Jonglei last Wednesday and Thursday. The death tolls announced by Amum and Kok do not appear to include casualties among the rebel fighters.

South Sudan’s army previously said 105 people died in the violence, including 30 of Athor’s men.

Athor launched a rebellion after losing the Jonglei state governor’s race in elections last April.

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