The Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted a high-level off-the-record briefing and discussion on the challenges facing the Republic of South Sudan, which achieved its independence as Africa’s fifty-fourth sovereign state on July 9, 2011.
While the birth of the new country was the culmination of decades of difficult struggle, including a war that claimed some two million lives, South Sudan continues to face myriad obstacles, both external and internal, which test its very viability.
Joining Ambassador Princeton Lyman, U.S. special envoy for Sudan, for the roundtable moderated by Dr. J. Peter Pham, director of the Ansari Africa Center, were experts from the U.S. government, think tanks, academia, relief organizations, corporations, and advocacy groups. The meeting also included briefing on the situation in the Republic of Sudan and the contested areas from Ansari Center nonresident fellow Dr. Gérard Prunier and E.J. Hogendoorn, Horn of Africa director at the International Crisis Group.