Southern Sudanese independence referendum, 2011

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Southern Sudan will hold an independence referendum on whether or not it should remain as a part of Sudan by March 2011.^[1] This is part of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement between the Khartoum central government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army.

Simultaneously, referendums will be held in the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile and Abyei on whether to become part of Southern Sudan or of Sudan.

The prerequisites for the referendum include a census, which will define how wealth and political power will be apportioned between regions. The census will thus be the basis of a voter registration process, which will allow national elections in 2009, which will in turn set the stage for the referendum. As of early 2008, the census had been delayed three times. Problems include disagreements between the north and south over what they are obliged under the Naivasha Agreement, funding difficulties and an enormous logistical challenge. In the south, unmapped minefields from the war make movement difficult, while up to five million Sudanese are nomadic. Up to two million internally displaced persons from the south remain in camps around Khartoum, in the center of the country, while refugees remain in Uganda and Kenya. A further complication results from the conflict in Darfur to the west, where civilians who have fled attacks refuse to take part in census out of fear that the government would use the results against them. Darfuri rebel groups are unanimous in their denunciation of the planned census, while the Justice and Equality Movement group has threatened to attack any census-taker.^[2]

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