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91���� Institute's Center for Religious Freedom and Voices for Sudan cordially invite you to a roundtable briefing on South Sudan by His Excellency Bangasi Joseph Bakosoro, Governor of Western Equatoria State, South Sudan, with Remarks by Amin Zakaria Ismail, former Secretary General of the Nubia Mountain Association.

On July 9, 2011, the Republic of South Sudan will officially become Africa's 54th country. The new nation will be comprised of numerous ethnic and tribal groups with hundreds of languages and dialects in ten states. Like the others, the State of Western Equatoria faces daunting challenges, including the need to develop roads and other basic infrastructure, educational, agricultural and commercial sectors, and a criminal justice system. The constant threat of violence by the Northern Ugandan rebel group led by Joseph Kony, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) also plagues this state.

Governor Bangasi Joseph Bakosoro is one of South Sudan's new leaders to emerge from the April 2010 democratic elections. The only independent candidate elected as governor in South Sudan and Sudan at large, Bakosoro, a colonel in the South Sudan Army, has already demonstrated promising leadership in representing the people of his state as well as those of South Sudan.

While in office, Governor Bakosoro has worked extensively to address the LRA threat, regulate land usage to benefit the people of the state, bolster education for girls, and foster unity and reconciliation among the various states of South Sudan, which have a history of conflict.

Also presenting brief remarks will be Amin Zakaria Ismail, the former Secretary General of the Nuba Mountain Association. Mr. Ismail will provide an update on the volatile situation in the contested border areas of South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, and Abyei, over which the government in Khartoum has threatened to go to war. He will provide details about a rally for freedom by marginalized communities from across Sudan, at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, on June 4, at 1:00 PM.