The current situation in Sudan and South Sudan, the latter newly independent since July 9, 2011, is bleak. Ongoing armed conflicts between the government of South Sudan and numerous armed groups have resulted in thousands of people being displaced. Tribal clashes and interethnic warfare have also contributed to this new country’s instability. In addition, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which is led by Joseph Kony and is comprised largely of child soldiers, continues to terrorize much of South Sudan. Indeed, the state of Sudan, which formerly included South Sudan, has been undergoing conflict for much of its history since independence in 1956. The first Sudanese civil war raged from 1955 to 1972 and the second Sudanese civil war from 1983 to 2005. Together, these conflicts resulted in an estimated 2.5 million people being killed and some five million people becoming internally and externally displaced. 1
There are serious tensions between Sudan and South Sudan as the boundary between these two countries is still being negotiated. The current boundary was aligned following Sudan’s independence on January 1, 1956. 2 There are also pending negotiations regarding the sovereign status of the Abyei Area between Sudan and South Sudan.3 Gross human rights violations have been well-documented against the civilian population and include the burning of whole villages, the systematic rape of women and girls, the use of torture, and murder.4 In fact, experts and commentators have predicted that there could be a new mass killing or genocide in South Sudan sometime in the next five years.5 ... [ read more ]
South Sudan is in a state of crisis that requires the international community’s direct assistance, despite its abundant natural resource wealth, including in oil and in fertile agricultural regions, such as the White Nile Valley. However, due to the protracted intra-state armed conflicts, including interethnic violence, which have resulted in severe human rights breaches and abuses, South Sudan’s infrastructure and industry are highly underdeveloped and poverty is rampant and wide-spread. For example, South Sudan has a mere 60 kilometers of paved road, electricity is being produced by costly diesel generators, and running water is scarce. 6 Subsistence agriculture provides livelihoods for the vast majority of South Sudanese.
Given the present desperate plight of the two Sudans, the Sudan/South Sudan Symposium will seek to bring together noted experts from a number of different disciplines, as well as practitioners and policy-makers from the state, regional and international level to consider a wide range of social, economic, and political factors that are affecting the current state of affairs in Sudan and South Sudan. This three-day Symposium will feature a keynote public address and both plenary sessions open to the public and closed technical workings groups, where experts will discuss concrete solutions and policy options.
During the first full day of the Symposium, participants will analyze the key factors underlying these inter-related humanitarian crises. They will consider the various forces at play in Sudan and South Sudan that interact to shape current environmental, economic, social and political conditions. The second full day of the Symposium will consider the most effective way forward in addressing key challenges in the two Sudans. Again, experts will come together in dynamic small group sessions to work out the most creative and effective initiatives, interventions, and programmes in order to address the current humanitarian crises and to create a solid foundation for long-term stability and development in these two countries.
The Sudan/South Sudan Symposium seeks not only to understand the underlying causes and context of the current humanitarian crises within these two countries, but also to map out positive and constructive courses of action for various stakeholders.
We welcome all those who are interested and concerned about the current situation in the Sudan and South Sudan to join us at our public open sessions. This website will continue to be developed and we hope will come to serve as a hub of information for all those who are conducting research and are working on the issues and concerns that plague these two countries.
Please feel free to share your thoughts, suggestions and comments on our website and how you think we might be able to improve it and enhance its use.
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