2010

A group of U.S. and international institutional investors sent letters to top telecommunications and oil and gas companies operating in Sudan, calling on them to take
steps to ensure they do not infringe on human rights as that country prepares for two contentious referenda including a vote for southern Sudan’s independence.

The secretary-general of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum, has outlined what he termed as “the ransom” that south Sudan is offering to north Sudan in order to break the deadlock over the future of the contested oil-producing area of Abyei.

Speaking in an exclusive phone interview with Sudan Tribune, the SPLM’s powerful figure has also warned that south Sudan could resort to other options to exercise the right of self-determination should the January 2011’s referendum on the region’s full independence from the north becomes “politically obstructed.”

The U.S. needs to reconsider its current sanctions against Sudan’s oil industry if the nation splits in two early next year, Senator John Kerry said. Last month, Kerry proposed the Sudan Peace and Stability Act of 2010, which calls for reviewing current sanctions on Sudan if the nation is divided and for increasing U.S. aid to Southern Sudan.

A former Khartoum backed militia leader, General Gabriel Tanginye, has joined the advisory board of a US-based investment group less than 10 days after joining the SPLA the former rebels who control southern Sudan.

Gabriel Tanginye shakes hands with leading members of the Nuer tribal community in Unity state, Bentiu on October 19, 2010 (AP) Jarch Management Group Limited, issued a statement, October 21, saying that Tanginye, who has been accused of instigating violence in south Sudan resulting in hundred of deaths, “strengthens” the company’s knowledge of the region.

China is courting the secessionist government of oil-rich southern Sudan, an apparent departure from Beijing's decades-long opposition to independence movements abroad.

Chinese companies are among those that are competing to win a contract for building a pipeline that would pump oil produced in South Sudan through a Kenyan port, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The controversial project would enable the landlocked South to avoid transporting its main export through the pipeline that runs through the North until it reaches Port Sudan.

The Sudanese minister for finance and national economy Ali Mahmood Abdel-Rasool warned the people of the North that tough austerity measures has to be undertaken should the South Sudanese vote for independence in the January 2011 referendum.

Analysis on the Abyei issues - October 2010.

China will continue to improve ties with Southern Sudan after a referendum in January in which the oil-rich semi-autonomous East African region will vote on secession.

The U.S. Supreme Court tossed out an appeal that sought to hold Canadian Talisman Energy responsible for war crimes and genocide in Sudan. The decision ends more than a decade of legal wrangling.