The two Sudans: When kindness is met with ingratitude

At a time when the status of southerners in the North has been changed from “citizens” to “foreigners” after the deadline set for them to regularize their status expired last Sunday, April 8^th, Juba assumed the moral high-ground by reaffirming that the south would grant citizenship to northerners living in the South.

South Sudan’s information minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin stated that southerners were ready to return to their country, “but what could Khartoum do about more than two million Sudanese who cross to the South with their cows and have no identifying documents,” Barnaba told Al-Sharq Al-awsat, adding that the northerner traders and others are free to reside in the south and can be granted the nationality of the new state if they wanted to. “Northerners living in the South may acquire citizenship as prescribed by the law”.

Meanwhile Sudan's Foreign Ministry has denied receiving any notifications from the Government of the South on the status of  Northerners in the South in the context of the deadline for regularizing status of southerners in the North which expired on Sunday, April 8^th.

The ministry further revealed the formation of high committees for the preparation of the entry and exit visas for the citizens of the South well as control measures for the presence of foreigners.

Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ambassador Al-Obied Al-Marawah was quoted by the local newspapers yesterday as emphasizing that the deadline for regularizing the status of northerners in the South is a matter that related to the regulations and laws of the Government of South Sudan.

In other words, while the government of South Sudan announced that northerners living in the South would be entitled to obtain South Sudan citizenship, many governmental bodies in Khartoum underlined on different occasions that southerners in the north would be subject to all the laws regulating the presence of “foreigners” in the country, seemingly unaware that such statements could leave negative impact on its citizens in the South.

The Government of Sudan should deal prudently with this issue in order to ensure the safety of its citizens in the South and at the same time to build bridges with its southern neighbor. 

We should always remember that when the kindness is met with its opposite, we cannot control the reaction of the other side!