Southern Sudan is set for a divorce with the rest of Sudan in 36 hours time. For South Sudanese, this is what they have been fighting for the last half of the century. However, the split of the African’s largest country also creates uncertainty about the future of Sudan and Africa in general. With Sudan being a fragmented and failed state with no state government, there is a great fear that South Sudan independence would a precedent that many regions like Darfur, and Southern Kordofan not mention Abyei which its fade is still to be determined.
Regionally, there is uncertainty about what South Sudan independence means to regions like Somaliland of Somalia, Katanga of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Western Sahara of Morocco and many other regions which wanted to become their own countries. As scholars and students of conflict Resolution, the question that South Sudan’s independence poses is, did the world committed a big mistake by creating a precedent that would likely set the continent of Africa on a different trajectory since the end of the Scramble for Africa? Or should South Sudan independence be considered as a special case in which if the case, do we need to discourage other regions from following the same path?
