Security Council heads to Sudan ahead of upcoming referenda

The Security Council will travel to Sudan this week ahead of two key referenda on self-determination that are scheduled to be held in the vast African nation next January, it was announced today.

The 15-member body will head to Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, followed by El Fasher, in the strife-torn region of Darfur, and finally to the national capital, Khartoum.

“The terms of reference and travel schedule are being finalized,” Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda of Uganda, which holds the Council’s rotating presidency for this month, told a news conference at United Nations Headquarters.

He said more details regarding the visit, which will begin with a stop in Kampala, Uganda, will follow later.

On 9 January the inhabitants of southern Sudan will vote on whether to secede from the rest of the country, while on the same day the residents of the central area of Abyei will vote on whether to be part of the north or the south.

The referenda will be the final phase in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the 2005 pact that formally ended two decades of fighting between the northern-based Government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in the south.