South Sudan

The Republic of South Sudan formally declares its independence with thousands dancing through the night to welcome the dawn of a new era.

International Editor Lindsey Hilsum reports from South Sudan on the nascent nation’s hopes and fears as it emerges from a decade of war.

“In Sudan, where 84% of women are illiterate, only six percent of girls complete their schooling. Even in primary schools, boys outnumber girls three to one.”

Our International Editor Lindsey Hilsum has been to Panyang in Sudan where people have been telling her shocking stories of being bombed by their own government.

From the Grand Hotel, Bentiu, Lindsey Hilsum blogs that South Sudan needs to harness the potential of its oil wealth if the new country is to realise its potential.

International Editor Lindsey Hilsum blogs on a peculiar problem of a person’s worth in cows in southern Sudan.

South Sudan will be born poor and troubled. People’s lives of aching poverty and hardship will not improve quickly. The danger of war, either with the north, or between southern Sudanese, is ever present.

Lindsey Hilsum reports from south of the Nuba mountains, a disputed border region that is threatening to derail the peaceful separation of North and South Sudan.

There’s plenty of cows, but no milk industry – Lindsey Hilsum, writing from the southern Sudanese capital, says it’s a sign of the problems Africa’s newest nation will face.

With uprisings sweeping the Middle East, and fugitive killers like Osama bin Laden and Ratko Mladic captured, this is a historic year. Lindsey Hilsum looks at the historic stories that are being missed.

The charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have all offered dire predictions about the outcome of the referendum in southern Sudan on secession from the north. But out International Editor Lindsey Hilsum believes there are grounds for optimism

Presidential and parliamentary elections. Polls for state governors and state legislatures. Some by the first-past-the-post system, some by proportional representation, and don’t forget the women’s quota.