By Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert
and Øystein H. Rolandsen
Executive summary
South Sudan’s secession from Sudan on July 9th 2011 has changed the relative imbalance of power and international standing of the two parties, bringing South Sudan more on par with Sudan. Compared to the negotiations preceding the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, less is at stake in the current AUHIP process. However, delaying a solution to outstanding issues until after South Sudan’s independence has made it more difficult to resolve these issues. Several are still far from being settled.
This report analyses how South Sudan’s newly won sovereignty has affected the two parties’ relative strength and the positioning of external actors involved in or following the negotiations, and how it has changed the parties’ approaches to the outstanding issues, i.e. oil wealth, the delineation of the border, security in the border areas and the issue of Abyei.