Citizenship issue festers as Sudan prepares for plebiscite

Some Southerners desire citizenship in the North, while others want to return to the South as soon as possible, regardless of the unavailability of basic services.

There are about 10,000 Southerners who have been living in Dongola in the extreme North since 1986. They went to school, married and are now settled there.

Other issues that need to be sorted out include wealth sharing and oil, demarcation of borders, and how international obligations will be handled between the two states if the people decide to secede.

In June, Southern Sudan Vice President Dr Riek Machar hinted that Southerners living outside Southern Sudan since 1956 will not vote in the referendum unless they migrate back to Southern Sudan.

He also noted that borders should not be used as barriers between neighbouring states because this would hamper co-operation in other areas such as trade.

Dr Machar says if secession leads to the dissolution of the current Sudanese state and the formation of new emerging independent states, then citizens will be free to choose which side they belong to.