| Editor’s note: Information for the following primer on recent political events in Sudan has been gathered from various sites on the World Wide Web. |
Dozens of heads of states attended the formal signing ceremony. Colin Powell, then U.S. Secretary of State, was present, and urged both parties to work toward a successful implementation of the agreement.
Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir went on a tour of several Southern Sudanese towns to celebrate the signing. Thousands of people flocked to Juba, Malakat and other cities to celebrate with him. He said the ultimate goal of the peace agreement was a united Sudan, “which will not be built by war but by peace and development.”
The peace agreement guarantees a six-year period of autonomy for Southern Sudan, followed by a referendum on secession. It also provides the South with its own army, government and constitution during the six-year interim period, which began July 9.
On Oct. 24, the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a humanitarian news agency, reported from Nairobi that Salva Kiir Mayardit, president of the new government of Southern Sudan and vice president of Sudan, had formed the first autonomous Southern cabinet. Of the 29 ministries, 16 remained in the hands of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of the north. Nine went to the SPLM/A, and the remaining four were divided among various other political parties in accordance with the wealth- and power-sharing quotas agreed to under the comprehensive peace agreement.
Rumbek has been chosen as the provisional capital of Southern Sudan. After Khartoum withdraws, Juba, a larger city, is slated to be capital of the South for the six-year period of autonomy. The United Nations’ envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, has indicated the Security Council likely will adopt a resolution authorizing a large-scale peacekeeping mis- sion in mid-February 2006.
The civil war took 2 million lives, caused about 1 million people tobecomeinternallydisplaced within Sudan, and led more than 120,000 to flee across the border into neighboring Chad.
The health status of the Southern Sudanese is among the poorest globally. Poor nutrition has exacerbated epidemics of illnesses such as malaria, diarrhea and respiratory infections.
The U.S. Agency for International Development is involved in Southern Sudan. It is an independent federal government agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State.
USAID goals are to further America’s foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and free markets while improving the lives of the citizens of the developing world. In Southern Sudan, the agency is active particularly in promoting agriculture and trade, global health, democracy, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance.
One of the projects of USAID and the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) is to compile a Sudanese North American Diaspora Database, or SNADD. Its motto is: “Building a nation, one skill and one person at a time.”
SNADD explains that the Government of Southern Sudan is in great need of all levels and types of skilled Sudanese to rebuild Southern Sudan.
The database will be a primary resource for identifying Sudanese in the North American Diaspora who are interested in participating in skills transfer programs to contribute to the development of Southern Sudan.