6 months until South Sudan votes to secede from north marked by rally in southern capital

6 months until South Sudan votes to secede

JUBA, Sudan — Hundreds of people wearing bright orange shirts gathered in the capital of Southern Sudan on Friday to mark the six-month countdown until the semiautonomous region votes whether to secede from Sudan and form a new nation.

Youth activists gathered in Juba with one main message written on shirts and banners: “Separation is our ultimate goal.”

The south’s referendum, slated for January 9, was a key provision of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, an accord that ended decades of war between Sudan’s government in Khartoum and the southern rebels, the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army.

Men, women, and young children flocked to Juba’s football stadium in an ad hoc parade of motorcycles, taxi minivans, and white SUVs. Organizers of Friday’s rally plan to launch events in coming months in all ten states of Southern Sudan, a largely rural and impoverished areas roughly the size of Texas.

With only six months left before the referendum, analysts worry that time is running out for a newly formed Referendum Commission to conduct voter registration and carry out vote preparations. Voter registration, originally scheduled to begin Friday, has been delayed. A delay to the referendum is seen as unacceptable by southerners.

The Southern Sudan Youth Forum is one of a number of youth groups that have sprung up in recent months to raise awareness about the upcoming vote. All of the groups have a strong secessionist leaning, indicative of the general sentiment among southerners.

Various signs attached to minivans and trucks reinforced those views at Friday’s rally: “No to the Arabization and Islamization of the South. Yes to Southern Sudan Independent,” read one banner.

“We have been marginalized by the northerners,” said Simon Kamis, 20, a secondary school student in Juba, echoing a common refrain here that the Khartoum government has not fulfilled the promises made at the signing of the peace agreement.