The right of people of South Sudan to decide their political future through an internationally monitored referendum, which many Southerners consider to be the cornerstone of the CPA, is now under severe threat. The National Congress Party views the right

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The Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM) yet again delivered on its thousand and one vows to boycott sessions of the National Legislature last week. The reason this time was parliamentary debate over the Southern Sudan Referendum Bill, which specifies legislation

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Why does the U.S. have so little influence over political outcomes in Sudan? Earlier this month, I made a presentation at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York in which I argued that the U.S. Administration can only influence

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Documents from the UN Security Council discussion of the AU High Level Panel on Darfur are available here: The speech of President Thabo Mbeki: Speech of Pres Mbeki The speech of Chairperson Jean Ping: H.E. Jean Ping statement The press

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When Sudan’s fifth population census was recently completed, many Sudanese citizens rejected the results, arguing that the population of Southern Sudan was significantly higher than the census showed. One of the worries is that southern states will be given fewer

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Article by: Markus Virgil Hoehne, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Note: For more detailed analysis, download the full version of this essay on the Crisis in the Horn of Africa essay forum. Somalia has made international headlines for almost

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A new publication by the Small Arms Survey, “Supply and Demand: Arms flows and holdings in Sudan,” provides the most up-to-date assessments of the military capacities of Sudan’s contending parties. The briefing documents the ongoing supplies of weaponry to the

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Sudanese cannot agree on their common identity, but up to now they have not disagreed on who counts as a Sudanese. The first disagreement may yet divide the country. But partition should not be a reason to tear up the

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Recent research in Burundi on the repatriation of refugees has highlighted the strong link between land and citizenship. The research tracked the experience of refugees returning to southern Burundi and (re)claiming their citizenship. Most had been living in exile in Tanzania – some since the early 1990s, and others since 1972. Some were born in exile and had never been to Burundi before. Others left when they were children. But all of them had a strong notion that returning to Burundi signified an end to exile and an opportunity to finally become citizens of their homeland. And the measure of that renewed bond between citizen and state was their ability to recover land. Continue reading →

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The media profile of Darfur shot up enormously once the label ‘the world’s worst humanitarian crisis’ was applied, although technically the phrase used was the “world’s greatest humanitarian and human rights catastrophe.” This is commonly standardised to ‘world’s worst…’ In

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