KHARTOUM, 21 September 2005 — Sudan’s unity government was partially announced yesterday, after weeks of bitter wrangling and eight months after the January peace agreement that ended 21 years of civil war in Africa’s largest country. The formation of Sudan’s first national unity government is a major step in implementing the peace deal signed by the regime in Khartoum and the former southern rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.
“This government is a good omen and represents the will of the Sudanese people to establish peace and consolidate national unity,” President Omar Bashir said on national television. A senior member of Bashir’s National Congress Party read the names of his movement’s ministers during a press conference and said that the full Cabinet lineup would be announced by the president himself.
The interim government will remain in place until legislative elections are held in around four years. A six-year postwar interim rule started in July, after which the south will hold a referendum on self-determination.
Among the appointments, the Oil Ministry was handed to the ruling northern party but the Foreign Ministry was for the first time granted to a southerner. Awad Ahmed Al-Jaz of the NCP retains the Energy Mining Ministry. The government was formed in line with quotas provided by the Jan. 9 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which grants the NCP a 52-percent share of power.
