JUBA, SUDAN – One of Alfred Lado’s earliest memories is from Jan. 1, 1956. He can be that specific because it was the date that Sudan got its independence from British colonial rule. A child at the time, he did not know the significance of the event, but on that day his brother told him […]

Sitting in Washington, pundits and politicians tend to overestimate U.S. influence on the Sudanese government. These days, provided the Gulf States and China continue to open the checkbook, the biggest threat to the Islamists in Khartoum comes not from Washington, but from inside Sudan itself. Read the rest of the article as it appeared. . […]

WARRAP STATE, SOUTHERN SUDAN – Aguek Deng is the only doctor at the government hospital in Kuajok, southern Sudan’s newest state capital. The hospital ward, which serves nearly 1 million people, has just 11 beds, none of which has a mattress. The on-site pharmacy boasts mainly acetaminophen and vitamins; Deng says injections for pain relief, […]

Abyei, Sudan—On October 19, Bulbul Deng was detained at a government checkpoint as he traveled by bus back from a medical appointment in Khartoum to his home in Abyei, a region situated in the heart of Sudan. At the checkpoint, Deng says the men onboard were forced to lie face-down on the ground, while the […]

(Nov. 10, 2010) At a market stall in southern Sudan, Darfuri trader Omer Saleh, 45, turned up the volume on his small battery-operated radio. Radio Dabanga, he said, referring to the Dutch-based radio service that transmits Darfur news by local journalists through shortwave frequencies into Sudan, “is the only way I can know what is […]

(Nov. 3, 2010) Abyei, Sudan – The failure to agree on who gets to vote in a Jan. 9 referendum on whether the key strategic Sudanese town of Abyei will remain part of northern Sudan or become part of what could be a newly independent south is leading pundits to cite Abyei as a possible […]

(Nov. 3, 2010) Abyei, Sudan — Francis Nyok Koryom stands in front of the ruins of his former home in the flashpoint Sudanese town of Abyei. It was just one of thousands destroyed in 2008 as Sudanese government forces rampaged through the strategically important town that straddles the border between northern Sudan and the semiautonomous […]

(Oct. 20, 2010) JUBA, Sudan—Spontaneous outbursts of singing, dancing, clapping, and cheering lasted through the night at the Nyakuron Cultural Centre in Southern Sudan’s capital, Juba, on Sunday. The celebration came at the conclusion of a conference initiated by Salva Kiir, the president of the semi-autonomous Government of Southern Sudan, aimed at unifying the fractious […]

(Oct. 4, 2010) Khartoum, Sudan – Amira* is the attractive 16-year-old daughter of an Iraqi mother and Sudanese father. She spent the first ten years of her life in Iraq, where her family lived in an apartment in a multi-story house in Baghdad, just around the corner from her grandmother. Amira remembers a happy life, […]

(Sept. 20, 2010) Khartoum, Sudan – It was my first day back in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, where I am reporting this year on the upcoming 2011 referendum in which southern Sudanese will vote on whether they want to become an independent nation. They are widely expected to support the measure, but many worry […]