Who is Mo Ibrahim?

Can the real Mohammed aka Mo Ibrahim please stand up?

I am getting confused! When the billionaire businessman announced his prize for good governance in Africa, he was both praised and criticised at the same time. But that is irrelevant for me. Is he a Sudanese or an Egyptian, is the question?

Most news outlet refer to him as "Sudanese businessman" born in Sudan in 1946. Read here and here and here! However, Time Europe and the BBC said he was born in Egypt!

I was just wondering whether some guys are playing politics here: that nothing good can come out of Sudan, except for carnage like in Darfur!

We love you Ethiopian Airlines!

Welcome Ethiopian! The news that Ethiopian Airlines will start regular flights to Juba is a welcomed news!

Juba is the capital and seat of the government of South Sudan. The signing of the CPA has opened the town to the world. Its previous links were only through Khartoum.

Few airlines serve the route, apart from small chartered flights from East Africa. Ethiopian is the only international airline that will add the most necessary international link to this "City of Dreams" as it forges its way through a hardwon peace. Ethiopian has shown its commitment to supporting South Sudan in its struggle to succeed as a nation. Ethiopian's move is also a vote of confidence in the new emerging economy of South Sudan. I hope others will follow suit.

Welcome to your new home, Ethiopian! We love you!

NCP and SPLM: strange bed fellows

The National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement (SPLM) are sure strange bed fellows. I just wonder more than once how they keep their Government of National Unity (GONU) functioning.

Now they are trading blows again. The SPLM claimed they were not consulted when Khartoum expelled the UN special envoy Jan Pronk. Being part of the government, where were the decisions made? Are there many governments in Khartoum?

Now it is Khartoum's turn to slam the SPLM. The NCP said the visit of the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to Juba was wrong. Since Sudan is still one country, any president visiting should come through Khartoum and meet president Bashir first.

Who is wrong and who is right? There are more to come, it seems.

Sudan expels UN envoy Jan Pronk

Things are not getting any better in Sudan. Now it is the time of Jan Pronk.

The UN special envoy to Sudan has been given three days to pack up and leave the country. His crime: claiming in his web blog that the Sudanese army had suffered serious losses in fighting with rebels in northern Darfur. He also said generals had been sacked, morale was low and soldiers were refusing to fight in North Darfur. I am amused that the Sudanese army generals are reading his blog at all!

Cool. This man has guts. He always said the unsayable! He is feared for hi open remarks. That is why the guys in Republic Palace want him out of their backs. He just gave them the excuse to pounce on him.

Take it from me. The government will relent in the end and allow him to stay. This is high class politicking.

HRW highest award to a Sudanese

Human Rights Watch, the international watchdog on human rights is awarding its highest award to a Sudanese from Darfur. Salih Mahmoud Osman, a lawyer who has defended and given free legal aid to hundreds of victims of human rights abuses in Darfur, Sudan for the past two decades, will recieve the award in November.

Bravo Salih. You deserved to be honored this way.

Darfur rebels demand new talks, self-determination

The time will certainly come when the cracks will lead to the collapse of the whole system of government in Sudan. The new demands of the new rebels alliance for self-determination is far from realistic, at least for now. I believe it will turn out to be a negotiation tactic: ask for the impossible and then agree on a better compromise.

Self autonomy is the answer, as I said in my last post.

Tip: Coalition for Darfur

The problem with Sudan. Part 1: the system

How do you run a country of 2.5 million square km, 33.3 million people, 7 times the size of Germany, with more than 400 spoken languages and dialects, multiracial, and with lots of resources?

After 50 years of independence from the British, Sudan has failed miserably in finding the right formula. Successful governments in Khartoum have experimented with several forms of systems, from the military to the Islamic fundamentalist ideologies.

Military regimes have not done the country any good. Sudan had seen a good share of military coups in Africa: Ibrahim Aboud (1958), Jaafar Mohammed Nimeri (1969), Suwar el Dahab (1985) and Omar el Bashir (1989). Although the country saw some semblance of calm, a war raged on in South Sudan for 40 years of the 50 years of independence.

The so called democracies had done no good either. The first president of the Sudan Ismail el Azhari failed to bring country together. Even the two times the Sadig el Mahdi ran the country as Prime Minister, Sudan was worst than it had ever been, as the rich plundered the resources and the poor get poorer.

Islamic ideological use in government was the craziest of all. Between 1966 and 1969, Sudan had a series of governments that proved unable either to agree on a permanent constitution or to cope with problems of factionalism, economic stagnation, and ethnic dissidence. The successions of early post-independence governments were dominated by Arab Muslims who viewed Sudan as a Muslim Arab state. Indeed, the Umma/National Unionist Party proposed 1968 constitution was arguably Sudan’s first Islamic-oriented constitution.Declaration of September laws by Nimeri in 1983 imposing Sharia Law and abrogating the Addis Ababa Accord with South Sudan plunged the country into deeper quagmire.

The country is at the verge of collapse and disintegration: rebel movements in the South, East and West of the country. The center is facing the greatest dilemmas as pressure mounts for solutions.

But how do you come out of the situation? Managing the huge country from the center had been one gigantic failure. What the country had never tried is federation. Give the different regions the right to govern themselves in partial autonomy, but retain important ministries. I believe it is the best solution to a recurring phenomenon. Decentralization is the answer.

When each region runs its own affairs, none will think of breaking away as an independent state, hopefully.

Sudan denies directing the janjaweed

It is always impossible to put the genie back into the bottle. Sudan's denial is not new.

Museveni and the LRA

When the goings get tough for the colonel, the general gets into the field. So it is for the stalled peace talks between the Lords Resistant Army rebels and the Uganda government taking place in Juba, South Sudan. President Yoweri Museveni has confirmed that he will be going to Juba to oversee the talks himself.

However, the rebels called his move premature. If it can help push the talks forward, what the hell!

Who killed Garang: the conspiracy theories

The circumstances which lead to the untimely death of the South Sudanese leader Dr. John Garang de Mabior in a tragic helicopter crash will never be fully known. Dr. Garang was returning to Sudan after a brief visit to Uganda where he met president Museveni when the helicopter disappeared in the mountain ranges of South Sudan on 30th July 2005.

I for one don’t like conspiracy theories, but I couldn’t help but consider all that were made around the circumstances of Garang’s death. They range from the remotely plausible to the utter ridiculous. Here is a collection of the conspiracy theories so far.

Khartoum involvement
Garang is a threat to the Islamist government in Khartoum. He is gaining support even among the Arab and Muslim northerners. People point to the fact that his reception in Khartoum drew the largest crowd ever to fill the Green Square.

LRA complicity
The Lords Resistant Army (LRA) rebels planted bombs on the helicopter. Garang had gone to Uganda to discuss ways of mopping out the LRA rebels from Sudan. The rebels used to hide in the South during the conflicts but with peace, there is no where to hide. They fear the Garang-Museveni pact could be their end.

SPLA rivalries
They say Garang was assassinated by his SPLA colleagues. Some point to the differences between Garang and his deputy Salva Kir (now the current SPLM leader Sudan VP) prior to the signing to the peace agreement. They believe this was a fight over leadership of the movement.

Congolese rebels
Museveni was fighting the Congolese rebels within Congo and they planted this bomb in the helicopter meant for him. Garang was one unlucky person to travel in Museveni’s bobby-trapped helicopter.

CIA hit
The CIA has taken Garang out of the equation. They fear his ideas about one united and powerful Sudan which can threaten their interests in the region. It was said to be carried out by the CIA’s Worldwide Attack Matrix.

The enquiry made into the accident has concluded that it was an accident with no foul play. Not many people buy this story. Months after the final report was made, Rebecca Garang, the wife of Dr. Garang called for a new probe into the cause of the accident. What am certain is that the truth about the death of Dr. John Garang de Mabior will never be known. But conspiracy theories will always be around for a long time to come.