Government of Southern Sudan
Liaison Office - Brussels

  You are in: Home > News and Releases > News Article Monday, February 06 2012

Southern Sudanese civic alliance makes public statement on humanitarian crisis
Thu, April 9 2009
By GoSS-LO [Brussels]
An alliance of southern Sudanese civic and social organizations have – on April 06 – issued a statement, criticizing the National Congress Party-dominated government of Sudan for the recent expulsion of the 13 international relief agencies from the western region of Darfur, Abyei, southern Blue Nile and the Eastern regions. Made up of a number of not-for-profit Sudanese organizations based mostly outside Sudan, the coalition urged the Sudanese government to revoke its decision to expel the international aid organizations at the heels of the ICC’s arrest warrant for Omer al-Beshir, the Sudanese president. In their statement, the civic and social alliance expressed the view that the ICC’s case against Mr. Beshir is a judicial response to an international humanitarian law issue, and asked the government to approach its dispute with the ICC as such.

On the various peace agreements signed by the National Congress Party (NCP), the civic alliance called for the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in January 2005, the Abuja Peace Agreement of May 2006, the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement reached in October 2006 and the accords reached by the NCP and the National Democratic Alliance in Cairo and the Justice and Equality Movement in Doha.

The alliance’s public announcement also mentioned that – given the way the NCP has so far handled the various issues facing the country – the current social, security and political situation in the southern Sudan, Abyei, Darfur, and in other war-ravaged parts of Sudan poses a real threat to the integrity, unity and sovereignty of the Sudanese nation as it is.

While applauding the recent release of the 3 foreign aid workers who had been abducted in Darfur, the southern Sudanese organizations called on the Sudanese government to protect the remaining aid workers and to apprehend and try any criminals, who disrupt the international humanitarian intervention which has saved millions of Sudanese affected by conflict and the effects of conflict.

Since its independence in 1956, Sudan has been engulfed in a series of bloody civil wars that have left many parts of the country devastated. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the National Congress Party (NCP) in 2005 brought some hope. However, the Darfur conflict and non-implementation of important aspects of the hard-won CPA and other accords have brought about the on-going political, social, economic and humanitarian crises in large sections of the country.

Members of this southern Sudan civic alliance include Peace with Neighbors in Norway, South Sudan Institute of Democracy and Peace, the Marginalized Women Alliance for Peace with Progress and Equality in Sudan, South Sudan Women Empowerment Network, the Sudanese Agency for Development in Canada and the South Sudan Institute for Women’s Education and Leadership in the USA, among others.

 

 

[ Back to news ]