South Sudan – News Resources

Where to go when researching developments in South Sudan

In case you haven’t noticed from my previous posts, I’m a little excited about South Sudan’s independence, scheduled for July 9^th. As I’ve been researching and posting about influences, wildlife, organizations, violence, and general aid related to South Sudan, I’ve come across a variety of resources. After combing through hundreds of news reports, websites and tweets, I’ve developed a list of the more informative resources. In light of the fact that South Sudan gains independence this Saturday, I thought it might be worthwhile to share this list with you so that you can join me in following this occasion.

I resisted Twitter for a number of years because I didn’t see the point to it. Facebook in 140 characters or less? No thanks. But then I saw how simple Twitter makes it to follow news about a specific topic, like Southern Sudan’s independence. As I sifted through all the tweets and Twitter accounts that claimed to provide news on South Sudan, I created a list of those who were actually posting relevant links on a consistent basis. To check out and follow this list, click here (If you don’t have a Twitter account, don’t worry! The link will still work and you can still access the news list). While there’s no way to guarantee that every tweet will relate to South Sudan, the list does provide a way to view all the latest news from one webpage. I’ll continue to update the list as new resources become available and I’ll remove those that no longer seem useful. If you have any suggestions on another account for the list to follow, send me a tweet @RyanPavel or leave a comment below!

If you prefer to stay away from the engrossing world of Twitter, there are a few websites that also provide a good deal of updated information on South Sudan. Perhaps the best and easiest to locate resource in this category is http://www.southsudan.net/. As you can tell by the name, it’s a webpage dedicated to news concerning this region. It hosts a list of resources that can all be accessed on the left side of its homepage. Much of its information is drawn from the Sudan Tribune, which tracks all the important news items in Sudan. Another one of my favorites is the South Sudan News Agency, which is an independent source.

If you’re interested in spreading awareness about South Sudan, check out Welcome #193. The goal of this organization is to “use the power of social media to bring people and organizations together in a worldwide show of support for the people of South Sudan on their first independence day, July 9, 2011.” One of the simplest ways to spread the word is to tweet #welcome193.

If you’re as excited about July 9^th as I am, you’ll find enough information on these websites to keep you reading for weeks. I hope these resources provide you with a news network that keeps you updated as Saturday draws near!