2011

Sudan’s north-south halves and Ethiopia will benefit greatly from striking a deal to exchange the former’s oil with the latter’s electricity, a new study has argued.
Horn of Africa’s leading powers, Sudan, an independent south Sudan and Ethiopia, face remarkably similar challenges in terms of core–periphery inequalities, food and energy production, climate change and poor infrastructure, says the London-based think-tank Chatham House in a paper released this month.

Analysts have predicted fighting could break out in Southern Kordofan ahead of the split, especially after an NCP official was named the winner of a gubernatorial election last month.

Southern Sudan wants to control its oil supply after becoming the world's newest nation in only a month's time, but already an apparent dispute with the north has sent fuel prices skyrocketing here and prompted fist fights at gas stations.

Malaysia’s Petronas will have additional access to Sudanese acreage according to Sudan’s petroleum minister, Ali Ahmad Osman. Khartoum plans to offer the company more business opportunities.

South Sudan's ruling party said on Friday 13 May 2011, it would not recognise an election in the north's main oil state and would not serve in its parliament or government because it said Khartoum rigged the vote.

The Khartoum government said it would send 300 troops in Joint Integrated Units (JIU) to oil fields across Unity State after the expulsion of northern oil workers two weeks ago.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit has issued a presidential degree asking Unity state governor Taban Deng Gai to allow northern Sudanese oil workers to return to work in state.

Northern Sudanese workers who were expelled yesterday from oilfields in Southern Sudan’s Unity state will return to the region within 24 hours, the Sudanese oil ministry said.

Southern Sudan’s oil-rich Unity state ordered the expulsion of all northern Sudanese workers from oilfields in the region over the Khartoum administration’s alleged support for southern militias, said Gideon Datpan, the state’s information minister.

The new state of South Sudan that will officially see the light in less than three months is exempt from the decade-long sanctions imposed on the entire country, the United States said on 12 April 2011.