South Sudan and Sudan; news roundup about the complex, intertwined situation
In 2012, I wrote about Al-Bashir: Sudan: divide and rule, the winning strategy. A year before that, as South Sudan celebrated its independence, I was carefully optimistic in South Sudan: Render unto southern Sudanese that which is theirs. And in December last year, on the beginning of the South Sudan civil war, I paraphrased an article by Daniel Howden ...
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South Sudan: how we all fell for the ‘big lie’
The title paraphrases an article by Daniel Howden published on The Guardian: How Hollywood cloaked South Sudan in celebrity and fell for the ‘big lie’. Since the crisis in South Sudan started two weeks ago, I’ve read a lot of things on the whys and hows of the situation. And, unsurprisingly, I’ve read a lot of ineptness, ...
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Abyei Referendum: Sudan wants is oil, South Sudan wants its people
These are the words of Taban Abel Aguek, a Member of State Parliament in Rumbek, Lakes State published on SouthSudanNation.com yesterday. “It is clear what Sudan wants in Abyei is oil, but South Sudan wants its people“. Very clear indeed but the situation can be more complicated than it appears. Abyei is a one million square miles region, it has ...
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Stop investing in genocidal Sudan
Divestment. I already mentioned it several times on this Blog (tag: Divestment for more), as well as the work done by Investors Against Genocide. Marc Gunther is a veteran journalist and writer whose focus is business and sustainability. He is editor at large of Guardian Sustainable Business US and is the author or co-author of four books. He recently ...
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7 Things You Need to Know About South Sudan’s Government Crisis
On July 23, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir issued a decree dismissing his longtime vice president, Dr. Riek Machar, along with all the ministers and deputy ministers in his cabinet. In a statement read on national television late Tuesday evening, Kiir also suspended Pagan Amum, the Secretary-General of South Sudan’s ruling political party, ...
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Darfur in 2013 Sounds Awfully Familiar
Asiya Tahir, 20, had her 4-month-old baby, Mariam, on her back in April when three armed men in Sudanese military uniforms seized her and her sister at a well in Darfur. The soldiers beat Asiya and then — according to both sisters who were interviewed separately — pulled Mariam off her back and laughingly checked to see if she was a boy or a girl. ...
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The revolution in Sudan and the ‘villains’
Why is the Sudan revolution being ignored? I’ve been asking the question for a while now and we have to face the facts: recent protests in Sudan have received little to no attention from the media. Since 1989 and the first article I wrote on Sudan, I have seen and heard many things. Or maybe I haven’t seen and heard enough to say the truth. In ...
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Sudan: divide and rule, the winning strategy
Sudan is back on the front pages. Since the past few days, I can hear, here and there, people saying: ‘Amazing, George Clooney has been arrested!‘ or ‘George Clooney was in handcuffs in Washington today!‘. Then I asked: ‘Do you know why he has been arrested?‘ The replies were: ‘It was at a protest outside some ...
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In Sudan, Seeing Echoes of Darfur. And still waiting for diplomacy…
Sudan’s ongoing military campaign in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states is a reality but not one you can see. One you guess from satellite imagery, one you read from witnesses’ stories. Now we have something more, a report by Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. Kristof has just reported ...
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