Sudan Braces for Protests, Violence as Oil-Rich South Becomes Independent (Bloomberg)
CGD was mentioned in a Bloomberg article on South Sudan's independence.
From the Article
The secession of Sudan’s oil-rich southern region tomorrow may rekindle unrest over soaring prices and stoke violence in outlying regions against President Umar al-Bashir’s northern government in Khartoum.
“Austerity measures are likely to fuel discontent,” Jean- Baptiste Gallopin, the Control Risks associate analyst on the Middle East & North Africa, said in a phone interview from London. “Bashir is in a very tricky position.”
While the south’s independence ends a rebellion against Khartoum that lasted almost 50 years, northern insurgents are still fighting government forces in the western region of Darfur and unrest has exploded in recent weeks in other states such as Southern Kordofan. At the same time, the opposition in Khartoum is threatening to renew protests over spending cuts that were violently put down earlier this year.
Al-Bashir’s announcement in a televised speech yesterday that he was quitting negotiations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to end clashes in the north’s only oil-producing state, Southern Kordofan, dashed chances of a quick cease-fire.
“His speech shows a president who is imposing his positions with force rather than using logic,” Fouad Hikmat, Brussels- based International Crisis Group’s special adviser on Sudan, said today by phone from Nairobi, Kenya. “There is a lack of strategic vision on how to deal with the challenges.”