Salva Kiir, a former rebel leader who leads South Sudan’s semi-autonomous government, has urged his compatriots to register “en masse” for January’s independence referendum. Plans for the vote really do seem to be proceeding slowly but steadily. But one hitch is the fact that Western donors appear to have reneged upon or been slow to fulfill their own promises heading into the referendum.
The West will have an important role to play and monitoring and facilitating both the referendum and whatever follows it. What appear to be silly machinations now do not exactly inspire hope.