Sudan

As Sudan gears up for Sunday's national elections, another landmark vote is on the horizon -- a referendum in January that will determine whether the south splits from the north.

Like the elections, the referendum is a key requirement of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, intended to give southerners a chance to decide if they will remain in a unity government with the north, or become an independent country.

But several major related issues are still up in the air, including where the north-south border actually is.

The village of Abyei had a population of about 30,000 when, in May 2008, violence broke out between government forces from the north and soldiers from the south, leveling the town and forcing the residents to flee to surrounding areas.

In the months since, the residents have been gradually moving back and rebuilding their lives. We spoke with some of the villagers and recorded their thoughts in the following Flipcam videos.

In May 2008, long-simmering tensions between the Sudan People's Liberation Army of the south and government forces from the north boiled over into violent clashes in the town of Abyei, causing an estimated 25,000 people to flee their homes.

They are gradually moving back to Abyei, located along the north-south border of Sudan. And efforts are underway to rebuild the town, including repairing roads and replacing the mud and thatched roof homes, known as tukuls. But still there are large swaths of barren land.

Decades of civil war in southern Sudan has have hindered the population's access to clean water and allowed some parasites to persist. But international efforts have made headway on one particular scourge: the guinea worm. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Sudan.

The piece aired on PBS NewsHour April 7, 2010.

Sudan's first multi-party presidential and parliamentary elections in 24 years are set for April 11, but with just days to go, the main opposition presidential candidate has withdrawn from the race, throwing the legitimacy of the election into question.

The elections are mandated under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended two decades of civil war between the primarily Muslim and Arab-speaking north and rebels in the south. Another requirement of the CPA is a referendum in January 2011 in which the south will decide whether to split from the north.

The people of Sudan have two important votes approaching: national elections next month in which they will decide whether President Omar al-Bashir should stay or go, and a referendum in early 2011 in which the south will choose whether to split from the north.

In February, NewsHour special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro and producer Nicole See visited a Doctors Without Borders hospital in a remote part of southern Sudan, where patients often walk for miles to get treatment. NewsHour correspondent Larisa Epatko reports on Fred and Nicole's trip.

As presidential elections and a vote on north-south succession approach, Zach Vertin of the International Crisis Group sat down with NewsHour special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro in Sudan to discuss the challenges the country still faces. NewsHour correspondent Larisa Epatko reports on their meeting.

Women in South Sudan have faced double oppression—as Southerners, they have faced violence from the North, and they are struggling for equality within their own community as Southerners.

The deeper I became engaged in issues related to Darfur, the more I realized that there is no way to understand the crisis in Darfur without understanding its historical, political and geographic contexts.

Jen Marlowe, for the Pulitzer Center

Jen is currently documenting and writing about education, infrastructure and health care, which remain among the most vital needs in rebuilding South Sudan.

The following is an excerpt from a piece that appeared on World Focus on January 25, 2010.

Tension was under the surface as we negotiated with the contractor, trying to chip away another $10,000 from his bid. The price to build a school in South Sudan, I have learned, is exorbitantly high.

Jen Marlowe is an independent journalist with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. She is currently documenting and writing about education, infrastructure and health care, which remain among the most vital needs in rebuilding South Sudan.