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Country Analysis Brief: Sudan and South Sudan
Country Analysis Brief: Sudan and South Sudan
Source: Energy Information Administration
South Sudan shut in its oil production just six months after gaining independence, as a result of an ongoing dispute with Sudan over transit fees and other post-independence issues.
Economics of the Arab awakening
Few observers would have predicted the dramatic changes over the past few months in the Arab world. Arab governments appeared to be in tight control, and many Arab economies were growing around or above the world average over the past few years. Annual growth rates in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, and Sudan averaged more than 6 percent between 2005 and 2010; and Syria, Tunisia, and Libya grew at about 5 percent on average during the same period of time. Official poverty rates in most Arab countries are lower than in many Asian and Latin American countries.However, experts have long identified slow progress in economic diversification and job creation, social inequalities, and persistent food insecurity as major development challenges for Arab countries. Did these factors and, more broadly, people’s dissatisfaction with their living standards contribute to the recent uprisings? At first glance, the sudden turn of events and the generally low coverage, quality, and accessibility of data in the Arab world make it difficult to find answers to this question. By looking beyond more conventional data, however, this policy brief provides some insights into the potential role of economics in the ongoing uprisings. It also reviews major policy responses of Arab governments and provides a new narrative of Arab development that is based on inclusive economic transformation, food security, and decisionmaking.
Country Analysis Brief: Sudan
Country Analysis Brief: Sudan
Source: Energy Information Administration
Sudan has been involved in several conflicts since its independence in 1956 that have impacted the country’s economic development, particularly its natural resources. The most recent conflict, Darfur (2003-2010), brought with it international condemnation, internally displaced populations, and sanctions affecting the country as a whole. The conflict has prevented oil exploration in the Darfur region, and the sanctions have prevented some international investment. The fighting itself has led to considerable infrastructure damage further limiting development.
State Department Travel Warning: Sudan
State Department Travel Warning: Sudan
Source: U.S. Department of State
The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the risks of traveling to Sudan. The Department of State recommends U.S. citizens avoid all travel to the Darfur region of Sudan, and avoid travel to the border areas between the northern and southern regions of Sudan, particularly the states of Upper Nile, Unity, Western Bar el Ghazai, Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile, and the Abyei Special Administrative District. This replaces the Travel Warning of January 7, 2011, to reflect the continued risk of violence in the Darfur region; the risk of armed conflict involving forces of the Government of Sudan, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, and various militia groups in certain areas of Sudan; and the high risk of violent crime in Juba.
In recent weeks there have been a number of armed clashes between forces loyal to the Government of Sudan and forces loyal to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the border areas between the northern and southern regions of Sudan. These clashes have led to a build-up of the military forces of both the Government of Sudan and the SPLA in the border area. Following fighting in Southern Kordofan state in May and June, the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) evacuated non-essential personnel from its compound in Kadugli, the capital of that state. In addition to the fighting in the border areas, there continue to be frequent clashes between militia groups and SPLA forces in southern Sudan.
The threat of violent crime, including kidnapping, armed robberies, home invasions, and carjackings, remains high in the Darfur region of Sudan, as the Government of Sudan has limited capacity to deter crime in that region. A number of foreign nationals, including a U.S. citizen, have been kidnapped and held for ransom by criminal groups operating in Darfur. Because of the risk involved in travel to Darfur, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum continues to prohibit travel by U.S. government personnel to Darfur without express authorization by the chief of mission.
State Department Travel Warning: Sudan
State Department Travel Warning: Sudan
Source: U.S. Department of State
The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the risks of traveling to Sudan. The Department of State recommends U.S. citizens avoid all travel to the Darfur region of Sudan, and avoid travel to the border areas between the northern and southern regions of Sudan, particularly the states of Upper Nile, Unity, Western Bar el Ghazai, Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile, and the Abyei Special Administrative District. This replaces the Travel Warning of January 7, 2011, to reflect the continued risk of violence in the Darfur region; the risk of armed conflict involving forces of the Government of Sudan, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, and various militia groups in certain areas of Sudan; and the high risk of violent crime in Juba.
In recent weeks there have been a number of armed clashes between forces loyal to the Government of Sudan and forces loyal to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the border areas between the northern and southern regions of Sudan. These clashes have led to a build-up of the military forces of both the Government of Sudan and the SPLA in the border area. Following fighting in Southern Kordofan state in May and June, the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) evacuated non-essential personnel from its compound in Kadugli, the capital of that state. In addition to the fighting in the border areas, there continue to be frequent clashes between militia groups and SPLA forces in southern Sudan.
The threat of violent crime, including kidnapping, armed robberies, home invasions, and carjackings, remains high in the Darfur region of Sudan, as the Government of Sudan has limited capacity to deter crime in that region. A number of foreign nationals, including a U.S. citizen, have been kidnapped and held for ransom by criminal groups operating in Darfur. Because of the risk involved in travel to Darfur, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum continues to prohibit travel by U.S. government personnel to Darfur without express authorization by the chief of mission.
The risk of violent crime is also high in Juba, in southern Sudan. Because of an increase in security-related incidents, including persons being pulled out of vehicles and attacked, the U.S. Consulate General in Juba recently moved up the beginning of its curfew period to better ensure the safety of U.S. government personnel in Juba. If you are affiliated with humanitarian relief or development efforts in Southern Sudan or Darfur, you should take prudent measures to reduce your exposure to violent crime and should adhere closely at all times to the security policies and procedures of your organization.
Special Report No 3/2011: “The efficiency and effectiveness of EU contributions channelled through United Nations Organisations in conflict-affected countries”
Special Report No 3/2011: “The efficiency and effectiveness of EU contributions channelled through United Nations Organisations in conflict-affected countries” (PDF)
From press release (PDF):
The amounts, channelled by EuropeAid through UN organisations, are substantial, in the region of 4000 million euro for the five year period from 2005 to 2009.
This audit is the second part of the two phase audit. The first audit dealt with monitoring and decision making and concluded that the monitoring process should be more thorough, with increased focus on results, and that all decisions to work through the UN should be clearly evidenced. These conclusions were published in Special Report 15/2009 of January 2010.The present audit focuses on conflict affected areas and, in particular, on projects in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan over the period 2006 – 2008. It complements the earlier report by its emphasis on efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.
The report acknowledges the particular difficulties involved in delivering aid in conflict affected countries and the fact that the Commission has been able, through the UN, to deliver aid in areas which would otherwise have been very difficult to target. In these circumstances, the overall impact of the activities funded through UN organisations was positive.
The displaced and dispossessed of Darfur: explaining the sources of a continuing state-led genocide
The displaced and dispossessed of Darfur: explaining the sources of a continuing state-led genocide
Source: British Journal of Sociology
The millions of survivors who fled from attacks to Sudanese-controlled displacement camps and the refugee camps in Chad are the living ghosts of the Darfur genocide. The 1948 Genocide Convention incorporates extermination by mass killing and elimination through forced migration as two distinct elements of genocide. Genocide scholars and public discourse emphasize extermination by killing, but they give far less explanatory attention to the elimination processes that the Genocide Convention describes as ‘deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction’. (Article II United Nations 1948.) In Darfur, understanding the latter processes requires theoretical attention to the history of food, water, and famine and detailed methodological attention to temporal processes of displacement. We demonstrate how intentional state-led attacks on food and water massively dislodged Black Africans in Darfur from February 2003 to August 2004. The political leadership of the Sudanese state dehumanized and forcibly displaced Black Africans from their homes in Darfur to camps where they largely remain, not only through mass killings and rapes, but also by destroying life-sustaining access to food and water, leading to the genocidal elimination of group life in this region.
