POST-REFERENDUM SUDAN: THE NATION- BUILDING PROJECT AND ITS CHALLENGES

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (“CPA”), signed on January 9, 2005, brought an end to the brutal civil war (1955-1972; 1983-2005) that engulfed Sudan since its independence in 1956. The CPA was the immediate culmination of the negotiations that ended the hostility between the National Congress Party (“NCP”) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (“SPLM/A”). It ultimately created a new political dispensation and landscape in South Sudan. Over 2 million people have died and 4 million have been uprooted due to the civil war. In fulfilling the mandate of the CPA, a referendum on self-determination was conducted in January 2011, and 98.83 percent of South Sudanese effectively voted to secede from North Sudan. The General Assembly of the United Nations admitted the Republic of South Sudan into the community of nations as the 193rd member of the United Nations on July 14, 2011. View More