SUDAN HITS BACK AT CLINTON COMMENT ON ‘INEVITABLE’ SPLIT

A senior Sudanese official on Thursday hit back at comments by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Sudan was facing a “ticking time-bomb” in the countdown to the “inevitable” secession of the country’s south. People from Sudan’s oil-producing south are four months away from the scheduled start of a referendum on whether to stay united with north Sudan or declare independence – a vote promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war. Analysts say southerners overwhelmingly want independence and there is a risk of a return to conflict if the north tries to delay or obstruct the vote to keep control of the south’s oil. The members of a commission to organise the referendum were only announced in late June, and its secretary-general appointed last week, after months of wrangling between northern and southern leaders. Sudan’s President Omar Bashir, who leads the NCP, has promised to accept the result of the vote but says he will campaign to persuade southerners to choose unity.