Abyei and Southern Kordofan
The key to peace in Sudan?
Committee Room 19
Tuesday 17th May
3pm - 4pm
As Sudan rapidly approaches the 9th of July - when the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended two decades of fighting, is due to expire and South Sudan will become an independent state - the fate of the Three Areas are seen by many to hold the key to lasting peace. Once at the principal battle front between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Army, these border areas remain at risk of deadly confrontation.
Abyei is on the brink of dangerous new conflict, with recent escalating violence between security forces and other armed proxies from North and South Sudan. Fighting over the past days follows months of recurring incidents in the hotly contested border territory, underscoring dangerous tensions both on the ground and between leaders of the National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Khartoum and Juba, respectively.
On the 2nd of May elections took place in Southern Kordofan - the final electoral events required by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The elections results, set to come out over the next few days, will have far reaching implications as the two state party leaders - International Criminal Court indictee Ahmad Muhammed Harun of the NCP and Abdulaziz Adam al-Hilu of the SPLM - face off in the contest for governor. At the centre of Sudan's north-south axis, the state fully incorporates the Nuba mountains, borders South Sudan, immediately adjoins Abyei, and neighbours three of Southern Sudan's most volatile states. The politics of Southern Kordofan are therefore crucial to that of a large swath of Southern Sudan and, by implication, to Sudan as a whole.
· Join leading world experts on Abyei and Southern Kordofan for a briefing on the key issues, including what role the UK Government should play over the next two months
o John Ryle, Chair of the Rift Valley Institute - world renowned research institute on East Africa
o Aly Verjee, Policital analyst and senior researcher at the Rift Valley Institute
This event is the second in a series by the APG for Sudan which will look closely at the challenges the two newest countries in the world will face in the run up to July 2011 - when South Sudan will officially become independent and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement will expire - and beyond.
