First Vice President – Cohesion In Coalition

Sep 3, 2005 (Khartoum) — The new Sudanese Vice President, and leader of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir, has announced that he wants to bring more of the opposition groups in the north of the country into a north-south coalition government. Kiir was chosen as the new leader of the former rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, after its former leader, John Garang, was killed in a helicopter crash on July 30. The formation of the current coalition government was possible after the January peace deal and there were worries that it could fall apart after Garang’s death. It appears, however, that Kiir has kept unity in the coalition and this week he made his first official trip abroad to visit Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Kiir is also expected to have meetings in Cairo with the Sudanese opposition coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which had not signed the January peace deal with Khartoum, and Kiir will attempt to bring members of the group into the government.

Conflict in the west of the country notwithstanding, prospects for the unity of the country are improving. So is investment in the country. The Sudanese government has awarded Petronas, Malaysia’s state owned oil company, the first offshore oil and gas project in the country. Petronas will hold a 35% stake in Block 15 covering 28,655 sq km in the Red Sea. Petronas plans to drill five wildcat wells with a total minimum expenditure of US$58mn over 6 years.

Sudan suffers from a high level of external debt and needs donor assistance to escape its debt trap. As such, international donors have pledged to provide Sudan with US$4.5bn for its southern region. The donor money is crucial to the peace deal as the funds are earmarked for projects designed to bring stability to the country and help the return of millions of displaced persons during 21 years of civil conflict. However, with conflict in the Western Dafur region still ongoing, the effect of these developments will not be highly significant for broad peace and stability in the country. A key date to watch is 15 September when peace talks between the government and the Darfur rebels will resume.

Emerging Markets Daily News.