Obama and South Sudan

I just got back from talking to some folks on the street in downtown Nairobi and, no surprise, they still love Obama. Interesting though, is the view from Southern Sudan. Badru Malumba the correspondent in the southern Sudanese capital Juba for Kenya's Nation offered a report on Monday:

“The Democrats did nothing for us,” says Juk Langjuk, the editor-in-chief of South Sudan’s BusinessWeek. “They were not interested.”
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“McCain would be better for us,” Dr Loi Cingoth, a columnist with Sudan Tribune, said last December.

As this year’s US presidential campaign gets into high gear, South Sudan is going against the general feeling in many African countries, who are extremely excited about the possibility of an Obama victory.

The Democrat Party’s hands-off approach to Sudan in the 1990s, compared with the pressure the Republican exerted on the regime in the 2000s, has condemned Obama in South Sudan.

American evangelical support for the more Christian south against the Muslim north helped motivate George W. Bush to push hard for the 2005 peace agreement that ended Sudan's north-south war, for now. Many observers think the U.S. has since dropped the ball on following through with that peace process, but the Republicans remain popular.

Or do they? In today's Nation, Southern Sudanese officials offer a rebuttal:

The Southern Sudan Government has denied that its people are opposed to Illinois senator Barrack Obama becoming US President.

Regional Co-operation Minister Barnaba Marial and Southern Sudan Liaison Officer to Kenya John Andruga, said the reports in Monday's Daily Nation were erroneous, cheap propaganda and the work of their country's enemies.