Sudan’s government has revoked its recent decision to treat South Sudanese nationals in its territory as foreigners and prosecute any South Sudanese without proper papers, a senior government official said.
Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman told Radio Tamazuj in an interview that the government decided to reverse its decision against South Sudanese nationals, while calling on them to obtain proper papers.
Bilal further said Southerners were not subject to any persecution in the Sudanese territory, claiming they are currently moving freely like Sudanese citizens.
“The government has reversed its position, and the southerners are now moving freely and they have embarked on their businesses across the country without any harassment,” said Bilal.
The decision if implemented would have affected at least 170,000 South Sudanese who arrived in Sudan since December 2013, few of whom have any official passport and hundreds of thousands more refugees living in the country since before that time.
South Sudanese who arrived in Sudan since the outbreak of civil war in December 2013 have never been given official refugee status but were theoretically entitled to the same rights as Sudanese citizens and received the same access to healthcare and other services.
Separately, Information Minister Bilal acknowledged that members of South Sudanese rebel breakaway groups incuding Gen. Peter Gatdet and Gen. Gabriel Tan-Ginye are now in Khartoum. The government spokesman said, however, that the two South Sudanese generals are living in Khartoum as normal citizens, while denying any support to them there.
Related:
Sudanese citizens criticize cabinet’s plan to treat S Sudanese as foreigners (21 March)
Sudan threatens to treat S Sudanese as foreigners, close border (18 March)