South Sudanese participating in post-Bashir protests in Khartoum wants reunification of Sudan
File: Sudanese protesters along South Sudanese citizens in Khartoum waves South Sudanese flag along Sudanese flag at a protest in Khartoum
April 22nd 2019 (SSNN) – Few South Sudanese participating in the ongoing Sudanese protest are calling for the reunification of the two countries almost eight years after then Southern Sudan obtained independence in a landslide referendum vote.
This came almost two week after the Sudanese army ousted the country’s longest-serving leader, Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, following months of protests by the Sudanese citizens demanding end to his 30-year rule.
Speaking to the South Sudan News Now from the main gate of the Sudanese Army’s general headquarters where there is protest sit-in, few South Sudanese protesters said they want the return of South Sudan to Sudan saying the departure of Omar al-Bashir opens a new page in the Sudanese-South Sudanese relations.
“We want our people [in South Sudan] to consider the return to our mother country which is Sudan. Since we left the unity in 2011, we have been living in Sudan as citizens despite the present of Omar [al-Bashir] and his departure now open a great opportunity for the two sisterly people to open a new page and return to unity and build the new Sudan Garang died for,” Deng Ngor Arop, a South Sudanese from the disputed region of Abyei told the South Sudan News Now on Monday from Khartoum.
Another participant in the Sudanese protest who declined to be named said although the ultimate power lies in the people of South Sudan, the authorities in Juba are the one who can make it possible for the people of South Sudan to reconsider the January 2011 vote.
Between January 9th and January 15 2011, a referendum took place in then Southern Sudan on whether the region should remain as part of Sudan or become independent.
The referendum was one of the consequences of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement between the Khartoum’s central government led by al-Bashir and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) led by Dr. John Garang de’Mabior.
On 7 February 2011, the referendum commission published the final results, with 98.83% voting in favor of independence.
While the ballots were suspended in 10 of the 79 counties for exceeding 100% of the voter turnout, the number of votes was still well over the requirement of 60% turnout, and the majority vote for secession was not in question.
It remains unclear whether authorities in Juba would heed to such calls. In the past, ex-Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir claimed that prominent leaders, he did not named, begged him to accept the return of South Sudan to unity.
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