Thursday, March 18, 2010

Mo Ibrahim thinks Sudan is a failed state

Quote of the Day
Dr. Ibrahim said the secession of Southern Sudan will be the most painful event in the history of Sudan.

[Dr. Mo Ibrahim]: “The whole world is talking about unity, here in Kenya, people are talking about the union of Kenya with Tanzania and Uganda and Rwanda and we in Sudan are splitting the country into pieces. It is a sad situation indeed.”
SOURCE: Mo Ibrahim Says North Should Vote for Southerner
SRS - Sudan Radio Service, Thursday, 18 March 2010:
18 March 2010 - (Nairobi) – The Sudanese-born telecommunications entrepreneur, Dr Mohammed Ibrahim, says that the northern Sudanese should elect a southern Sudanese president of the republic in order to convince southerners to vote for unity.

Speaking to SRS in Nairobi on Wednesday, Dr Ibrahim says northern Sudanese politicians should give a southern Sudanese candidate a chance, for the sake of unity.

[Dr. Ibrahim]: “I always say one way to solve this problem is to have a president from Southern Sudan. Why don’t all the candidates say, "Okay, let us have a president from the south!" It doesn’t matter whether it is a he or she, anybody from the south who is fit enough to come and run the country. I am sure there are a lot of people fit enough to run the country. And if that will help the unity of the country, why not? What is the problem, why doesn’t al-Bashir, Sadig al-Mahdi, Nugud, or whoever is contesting this election, say that it is the turn of the South?”

He also described Sudan as a failed stated.

[Dr. Mo Ibrahim]: “I think Sudan is a failed state. How many Internal Displaced People do we have in the country? We have more refugees than the Palestinians, is that not true? We have more people in camps and the IDPs. How many millions of people live in shanty towns around Khartoum? People who have been displaced by war and by hunger and by all kinds of catastrophes. How many millions of people live on the outskirts of Khartoum, outside Khartoum, and yet Khartoum pretends that those people do not exist?”

Dr. Ibrahim said the secession of Southern Sudan will be the most painful event in the history of Sudan.

[Dr. Mo Ibrahim]: “The whole world is talking about unity, here in Kenya, people are talking about the union of Kenya with Tanzania and Uganda and Rwanda and we in Sudan are splitting the country into pieces. It is a sad situation indeed.”

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, in collaboration with Inter Press Service, organized a media workshop in Nairobi on election coverage in south Sudan. The workshop was attended by 13 journalists from ten media houses in southern Sudan.
From The Economist print edition

Map source: The Economist (KHARTOUM) Sudan's elections - They're off, How the government is stacking the odds in its favour Mar 18th 2010

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