The Sudans: How Khartoum’s failed plot to stir uprising and halt South’s secession unfolded

The pump fuel price has more than trippled, where it is available. Humanitarian workers have scaled down field operations. Juba looks like a ghost town as business stalls. At the government secretariat, offices have reduced operations as workers stay home for lack of transport. Sudan’s blockade of the South has succeeded in causing havoc in its wake and bringing work and business to a standstill.

Yet, officials say, the blockade failed in its intended objective – causing an uprising in the south. The blockage of the north-south borders had a more sinister motive, part of a plan by the National Congress Party to push the people in Southern Sudan to strike against government, officials now say.

Trucks have backed up in Southern Kordufan, according to SPLM Secretary for Information Yien Matthew. Many were ferrying diesel and petrol to the south. “The Police and SAF are not allowing them to cross,” Yien says.
“This is their plan: To inspire civilians in the south to rise up and say that SPLM has failed.”
The north’s plan to inspire an uprising failed because, Yien told New Times, people understand that they are against an enemy that is always creating obstacles to the new nation.
The consequences have been dire. Last week, for instance, Southern Sudan Electricity Corporation indefinitely suspended power supplies to Juba town. The announcement sent panic among people; and many started planning for the worst. Not even government ministries have been spared. Many lacked diesel to run generators. According to one source, the Government of Southern Sudan on Thursday managed to get some fuel from East Africa, a process hampered by a lack of road network to the region. Oil firms have followed suit by heading to East Africa to buy fuel.
Observers now believe that, citing the fighting at the border as justification for the blockade, Khartoum was simply creating an excuse. Militia groups attacked Unity State in April. “They said the northern traders feared the insecurity at the borders,” says Eliaba Douglas, the marketing Manager of Imatongas.
However, that excuse soon fell apart. Some traders tried to hire cargo planes to ship life-saving and commercial items to the South. “We later learnt that the traders had just been stopped,” Eliaba says. “The north even gave orders to cargo planes not to ferry fuel to the south.”

US’ Kerry: Attacks Kill independence optimism

The Sudan attacks at the borders have jeopardized a peaceful transition much of the world was waiting for. A US former Presidential candidate says SAF invasion threatens plans for a peaceful separation between North and South Sudan after a January referendum. Kerry, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, says the fighting also kills the Independence Day optimism. The US may also have to review its relationship with north. Kerry says that Khartoum’s action endangered the chance for a new diplomatic and economic relationship between the United States and Northern Sudan

Bombing spills over into Unity State

Meanwhile Information minister. Unity State Information Minister Gideon Gatpan Thoar says the Sudan Armed Forces intensively bombs parts of Unity State Thursday morning. The attack was done by two Antonov planes. The planes dropped bombs in Jau in Pariang County

Preps for independence day on, despite attacks

Security forces have joined the campaign to clean up Torit ahead of Independence Day.
Felix Otuduha Siro, Torit County Commissioner says the police, civil defense services, prisons and Wildlife have joined in the exercise. Torit is not the only town getting a facelift. In Juba last week, City Mayor launched a cleaning campaign.

IN OTHER NEWS

NewAfrican names Kiir among top 100 Africans for shepherding country to statehood

President Salva Kiir has been named among the top one hundred most influential Africans from a continent of more than one billion people.
The forty-five year old NewAfrican, a bestselling pan-African Magazine published in Europe, names Kiir among the one hundred most influential Africans in its latest issue (June)- alongside other continental greats, such as former South African President Nelson Mandela.
The list also has the richest black man in the World, Nigerian-Aliko Dangote President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro of Tanzania, former United Nations Secretary-General Koffi Annan, President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, and Liberian President Johnson Sirleaf, among others. Other prominent long serving African leaders are conspicuously missing on the list.
“Salva Kiir, the president of Africa’s newest country, South Sudan, can claim some “luck” on his way to the top. He came into his own when his former boss, John Garang, died in a harrowing helicopter crash in July 2005. Kiir took over the reins and the cause of the Southern Sudanese and using his dogged pragmatism, led his people through tough and tortuous negotiations to independence in 2011.” the NewAfrican says in part.
“It is hoped that his reign as president of South Sudan, which begins in July this year, will bring improvement (and peace) to the new nation.”
President Kiir was included in the Politics and Activism section of the influential African people rating.
Another Southern Sudanese, super model Alek Wek, featured in the Fashion and design section, for revolutionalizing the way people look at beauty. she went onto the catwalk with features that were then not regarded as beautiful, and now many women in the world are comfortable in their skin.
“With her unique look. Alek turned heads when she first appeared on the international modeling scene at the age of 19, back in 1995. Not being the stereotypical ‘beauty’ prescribed on the international modeling scene, many believed she would not last. But enter 2011 and the former Sudanese refugee is still going strong.” NewAfrican says of Alek Wek.
Alek Wek is said to inspire many African girls to say they are beautiful just as they are. “Like her muse, Iman, Alek draws upon her experience as a refugee to help highlight their plight and is a member of the US Committee for Refugees’ Advisory Council.”
Also to make the list is Sudan-born British national, Mo Ibrahim who revolutionalised mobile telephony in Africa. Mo founded Influential Africans is Telecoms Engineer Mo Ibrahim who founded one of the biggest telecommunication companies in Africa, Celtel, which he subsequently sold for over US $ 3billion.
NewAfrican says, “Today he is a champion of good governance and is contributing to shaping the African growth Agenda.”
It continues to say Mo Ibrahim is one of Africa’s first “philanthropists”, “He launched the world’s largest prize in monetary terms to recognize outstanding leadership among African heads of State. This restless entrepreneur continues to use his money and influence to encourage clean politics and help foster African growth.”

Push still on for soft border despite reduced trust

A pressure group is still pushing for soft borders between the north and south after July 9, even as the Sudan Armed Forces acts in the region the past three months make this harder than ever. The SAF or elements within the SAF have financed militias and the full-scale invasion of Abyei and the bombing in Southern Kordufan have destroyed trust.
The pressure group has called upon the IGAD to reconfirm its commitment to ensuring a durable peaceful bilateral relation between the north and south.
The Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation’s statement arose out of a seminar, “soft borders for peaceful co-existence” held in Juba in April. Some 34 Sudanese civil society and journalists from both the southern and northern Sudan bordering states to Juba attended. Experts were invited from the academia, UNMIS civil affairs. The Assessment and Evaluation Commission funded the workshop.
Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation also suggests that in the case of less time for competition of the post-referendum negotiations agreements, a legal and political framework for continuing the post-referendum unresolved issues must be agreed upon.
“Security, peace and protection of citizens lives and properties at the borders and elsewhere between the two states must be clearly and strongly with mandatory roles and responsibilities be stipulate in the New United Nation Mission Mandate after the 9th July 2011,” the organization says in a statement.

BRIEFLY

Meanwhile, Farming goes to the dogs on back of LRA

If Western Equatoria can no longer farm, blame it on the rebels. A persistent Lord’s Resistance Army operation in the state has turned the people into an aid-dependent population, the Catholic Bishop of Tombura-Yambio Diocese has said. According to Bishop Hiiboro Eduardo Barani Kussala the LRA has remained elusive as it leaves displacement in its wake.

AU preps to admit South Sudan as 54th State

The admission of the Republic of South Sudan into the fold of the African Union was on the agenda as the AU Commission chairperson Jean Ping visited Sudan. If admitted, South Sudan would become the group’s 54th member. Ping met First Vice President Salva Kiir and President Omar al Bashir. This visit followed the Sudan Armed Forces entry and occupation of Abyei, displacing tens of thousands of people into neighboring states, especially Warrap.