Unrest in Nuba Mountains ahead of S. Sudan referendum

Youth groups demonstrated on Monday in the Nuba Mountains, in the city of Kadugli. They warned against “reluctance and procrastination” in implementing the Peace Agreement and the Protocol relating to the regions of the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile.A group calling itself “Youth for the Popular Consultation” called on the institution of the Presidency to remove the National Congress Party governor of South Kordofan and replace him with an SPLM governor. They also demanded “self-determination for the people of the state through the exercise of Popular Consultation.” They called on the international community to address the deteriorating political situation and the slow implementation of the Protocol, which formed part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The Nuba Mountains lie north of the North-South border; nontheless, they remain a stronghold of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. The area was brutally fought over during the civil war. The political status of the region will be deliberated in a “popular consultation” conducted by the state legislature. However, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement does not explicitly provide a mechanism for the Nuba Mountains to secede along with the rest of the South.