'Union split will benefit no one'

Sudan Ambassador to Tanzania, Dr. Yassir Mohamed Ali

The Sudan Ambassador to Tanzania Dr. Yassir Mohamed Ali says the union predicaments must be resolved by the new constitution for a break-up will not serve good to any party, political or otherwise.

The ambassador revealed this in Dar es Salaam over the weekend in an exclusive interview with this paper saying any separation is a loss to both Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar.
“God forbid, this will not happen,” he prayed.

“The break-up of Sudan was not good, we were one nation of brothers and sisters yet after the separation about 8million people became foreigners...we let go of 75 percent of oil…it is a loss but we don’t regret it was the price of peace...,” said the diplomat.

The Sudanese envoy cited Tanzania as a symbol of tolerance, peace, love and unity as such the on going talks over thee Union break-up should be viewed with great caution as whichever way the country chooses to go, it will influence the entire region.

He described Tanzania as ‘a peaceful country where any who visits never fills a stranger thanks to hospitality of the people but he warned that should the country divide then it risks creating animosity and hate one for another.

Of recent and past resource based conflict plaguing the continent is due to poor public awareness of government intentions and also cheap political games played by some politicians for self gains.

“Awareness is very important and the people need to see tangible community based results from the discovered resources,” the ambassador noted adding that diversity tolearance is key to unity as well as tolerance and respect to a difference in opinion, look, creed and political affiliations.

In the same accord, Lam Jok Wai Wuor, a former soldier of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in his study “The causes of Sudan’s break up and the Future of South Sudan” attributes the root causes of the breakup of Sudan in 2011 the failure to welcome diversity and tolerance and attempts of the state to impose Arabism and Islamism at the expense of African indigenous cultures.

Sudan, once regarded as the largest country in Africa, broke up into two on July, 9, 2011, after decades of conflict.

The first civil war between the North and the South broke out few months before the independence of Sudan on January 1, 1956 and was settled through peace in 1972. The second Sudanese civil war broke out on May 16, 1983 and lasted until a peace deal was concluded in Naivasha, Kenya on January 9, 2005.

Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005, South Sudan was given six years interim period before exercising referendum on whether to separate from the rest of the country or confirm unity on a new basis.