AfricaNews editorial desk with files from the BBC
The registration of voters in Sudan for the next January referendum has been delayed until November 15. According to media reports the new timetable is raising tensions in the troubled African country. The time is to allow for more training of staff and form delivery, according to referendum officials.
According to the BBC, Tanzania's former President Benjamin Mkapa, appointed by the UN to oversee the vote, said many challenges lie ahead. But he said if all parties were willing, the timetable would be met.
The referendum was part of a 2005 peace deal to end two decades of conflict between the north and oil-rich south in which some 1.5 million people died.
Analysts fear there is a risk of the conflict restarting if southerners feel that Khartoum is trying to delay or disrupt the vote in the oil-rich region - one of the world's poorest and least developed regions.
Chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, Muhammad Ibrahim Khalil, said the registration had been delayed by three weeks till 15 November.
According to Reuters news agency, registration forms have not yet arrived from the printers in South Africa - and are not due until late October.
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