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South-North Sudan separation likely, says AU

  1. Posted on Saturday 13 February 2010 - 21:13
    thejournalist
    The African Union seems to have given up on Sudan’s territorial future as prospects for its “unity attractive” bids toward the 2011 referendum in the largest country on the continent turn gloomy.
    Its chief, Jean Ping, Friday disclosed that there is an increasing likelihood that the oil- rich Horn of African state may become two spate states after 2011.
    The African Union Commission Chairperson said that recent political developments in Sudan indicate that Southern Sudan independence seems “unavoidable”.
    According to him, as of now South Sudan is increasingly moving towards independence from mainland Sudan because efforts to make “unity attractive” have failed.
    “We are moving towards a separation. We can analyse that separation seems unavoidable. The efforts to make unity attractive have not succeeded,” the Chairperson said during his monthly press conference at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa.
    AU has diverted its focus to new measures to secure peace in Southern Sudan after the January 2011 referendum.
    “There must be a provision for the post-referendum period,” Ping said. “We were trying to make the Union attractive for both the South and the Northern Sudan. We did what we could. But we have a feeling that we are moving towards a separation,” Ping stressed.

    Efforts to secure the future of peace in Sudan should be based on mutual cooperation between the North and the South, Ping said.
    “We are trying to make sure that whatever the outcome of the referendum, it must take place in a peaceful environment,” he said.
    Southern Sudan, where most of the country’s oil wealth is found, should work closely with Northern Sudan even if it becomes independent state, according to Ping.

    Southern Sudan’s former rebel group, the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), signed a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the Khartoum-based government in 2005, ending 21 years of civil war in the South over access to political power, wealth and a pact on security arrangements.

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