Nobel Women's Initiative

In an op-ed published in the Mail & Guardian, Wangari Maathai warns that South Sudan cannot fade from our memory as a success story now that independence day celebrations are over. The Nobel Laureate calls on the African Union to commit to peace resolution efforts with the goal of achieving "lasting security and stability."

Explaining that apart from the steep development hurdles, such as the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, the ongoing violence along the contested border with North Sudan threatens peace in the new capital of Juba as the possibility of war looms.

South Sudan declares its independence tomorrow amid rising tensions and violence on the North- South border. Observers have voiced concerns over the media crackdown and increase in violence against women.

The division of the North and South will critically affect women – leaving vulnerable women of the North isolated from political representation and women’s activities in the South.

Recent attacks by the North Sudanese government on the contested border with the South is threatening to pull the region back into war. The United Nations has condemned the violence and asserts that ethnic cleansing due to the occupation is possible.

In the two week period since Khartoum's forces seized Abyei, over 100,000 people have fled into South Sudan - most of them women and children. The UN Human Rights Envoy to the country, Mohamed Chande Othman, visited the region this past week and urged the government to allow peacekeepers into the area to provide aid and investigate allegations of killings and rape.

A recent upsurge in violence in Southern Sudan is threatening civilians and aid workers in the area.  Hundreds have been killed and thousands displaced in fighting between rebel groups and security forces just three months before the South is set to gain independence. 

The situation is also deteriorating in the Darfur region.  Aid workers have been especially targeted, leading to a worsening of the humanitarian situation for civilians. 

While the rest of the world celebrated International Women's Day, Sudanese authorities violently repressed women protesting the rape of an activist and their government's disregard for women's rights. 

Approximately 60 women took to the streets of Khartoum last Tuesday, in a protest that resulted in the beating and detention of 42 women.

Official results of the South Sudan referendum have been released: over 99% of people voted for independence. Demonstrators took to the streets on Sunday in Khartoum to call for an end to Omar al-Bashir's regime, following the example of Tunisia and Egypt. The protestors met fierce police blockades and an unconfirmed number were arrested, beaten and at least one student is reported to have been killed.

Many hope that the results of the referendum will bring about better lives for women, though others worry the inclusion of women will become mere tokenism. Indeed there is a long road ahead for both North and South Sudan to achieve peace.

Sudanese women's rights activists lobbied Africa's leaders ahead of the 16th African Union (AU) Summit that kicked off on January 24th. In a program coordinated by Oxfam International, Sudanese women's rights activists Samia Nihar, Zaynab El-Sawi, and Fahima El-Hashim joined the Nobel Women's Initiative in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

They joined other civil society leaders from across Africa to discuss African Union advocacy. Meetings concluded with several high-level advocacy meetings with AU Ambassadors.

In an op-ed in the East African Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai suggests that international attention must go further than the implications of the referendum for Sudan’s oil resources and the potential for conflict.

Maathai stresses the importance of international concern for the citizens of Sudan - especially women.

Read the full Opinion-Editorial.

South Sudan ends a seven-day independence referendum tomorrow in a vote likely to divide Africa's largest country in two.

So far the referendum has been largely peaceful.  It is being held six years after a peace deal ended a 20-year civil war that killed more than 2 million people.

Police in Sudan arrested 48 Sudanese human and women's rights activists during a peaceful protest on December 14.  The activists were protesting the brutal public flogging of a Sudanese woman by Sudanese police, which was captured on video. 

Lashes are a common form of punishment in Sudan, however women are not usually flogged in public. Activists are using the public flogging and subsequent arrests as an opportunity to challenge Sudanese laws.