Saturday, August 28, 2010
In an effort to bolster their plan to secede and form their own country, officials in southern Sudan want to bring home 1.5 million refugees living in the northern part of the country and Egypt so they can vote in an independence referendum scheduled for January. Although a majority of present-day Sudan’s population is black, the nation has always been ruled by its Arab minority. Southern Sudan is overwhelmingly black and, whereas the North is primarily Muslim, in the South, most of the population are Christians or followers of traditional religions.
The cost of the repatriation plan is estimated at about $25 million. Half the money would be spent on transporting the refugees and half on food and security. An additional $3.6 million is proposed for bringing home the 12,200 Southern Sudanese who live in Egypt.
The election was agreed upon by the north as part of a 2005 peace treaty that ended Sudan’s two-decade long civil war that displaced four million people and killed another two million.
Experts are predicting the south will choose secession, and split up Africa’s largest nation.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
South Sudan Plans to Bring Home 1.5 Million Referendum Voters (by Jeremy Clark, Reuters)
South Sudan Plans Return of 1.5 Million for Referendum (by Peter Martell, Agence France-Presse)
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