Southern Sudan Likely to Vote to Secede from North, Presidential Aide Says
Southern Sudan is likely to vote to secede from Sudan in a referendum next month, said Nafie Ali Nafie, an aide to President Umar al-Bashir.
Efforts to maintain the unity of Sudan have failed, Nafie said yesterday, according to state news agency SUNA. The government of the north will have to accept a vote in favor of separation, the Khartoum-based agency cited him as saying in a speech.
The referendum, scheduled for Jan. 9, is the centerpiece of a 2005 peace agreement that ended a 21-year civil war between the Muslim north and the oil-producing south, where Christianity and traditional beliefs dominate. About 2 million people died in the conflict and 4 million fled their homes.
Al-Bashir’s government has urged voters in the south to opt to remain part of Sudan. Southern Sudan is now a semi-autonomous region governed by the former rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.
Southern Sudan accounts for as much as 80 percent of Sudan’s 490,000 barrels of daily oil production. Sudan is sub- Saharan Africa’s third-largest producer, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Karl Maier in Rome at Kmaier2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at or phirschberg@bloomberg.net.
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