Citizenship issue festers as Sudan prepares for plebiscite

With less than five months to the referendum in Southern Sudan, the sensitive issue of citizenship should the South vote to secede is yet to be resolved.

There are fears that Southerners in the North and Northerners in the South could be left stateless and vulnerable to attacks should there be a split.

Both the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) are currently grappling with the issue of citizenship, given that there are thousands — if not millions — of Southerners in the North who are not interested in relocating should the South secede.

During the 22 years of war, many displaced Southerners settled in the north and their children, born and brought up there, have no link with Southern Sudan.

There are many who are in colleges or have established businesses in the north and would not be willing to move.

Then there are those who simply do not want to relocate because of the lack of infrastructure in the South.

However, should the South vote to secede, both Northerners in the South and Southerners in the North will be vulnerable to forced eviction, loss of citizenship, even retributive threats and violence by the two host governments.

According to Prof Abdelwahab Sinnary, the academic director of St Lawrence University in Kenya, Sudanese citizenship cannot be withdrawn unless one disowns it in favour of another.

He says the issue of citizenship is a time bomb given that politicians can easily whip up emotions, leading to the flooding of the South with people who have no connection with it.

“Unity would have been ideal in this era of regional trade blocs and globalisation. However, most Southerners mistrust the North, which in turn has not done enough to make unity attractive,” he said.

Still, the exact number of Southerners in the North is not clear given that the 2008 census figures were disputed by the South.

The figures showed the number of Southerners in the North at 520,000 people, of which 350,000 are in Khartoum.

Officially, the total population stood as 39.2 million, with 8.3 million in the South, making up 21 per cent of the national population.

But the SPLM estimates that between 1.5 and 2 million Southerners are in the North, with about 1.3 million in Khartoum alone.

Many of these remain displaced in camps, while others have settled on the fringes of society.

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.