The Republic of Sudan and The Republic of South Sudan

In 1995, President Carter secured the longest humanitarian cease-fire ever achieved in civil-war-torn Sudan to allow for the treatment of Guinea worm disease, to pilot the effort against river blindness, and to provide an opportunity for children to be immunized against polio and other illnesses.

Waging Peace

During former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's trip to Sudan with the Elders in October 2007, both President Omar al-Bashir and First Vice President Salva Kiir asked The Carter Center to observe the electoral process in Sudan. The Carter Center launched its election observation mission in February 2008 to observe Sudan's national elections, which were held April 11-18, 2010. In one of the Carter Center's largest observation missions, an international team of more than 100 Carter Center observers were deployed Jan. 9-13, 2011, across Sudan and in eight out-of-country voting locations to witness voting in the historic referendum on independence for Southern Sudan.

In the past, the Center's Conflict Resolution Program has helped find ways to end Sudan's civil war, working with President Carter to directly negotiate between the parties and working to help focus local, regional, and international opinion on peace, not war. Among the program's achievements was the negotiation of the 1995 "Guinea worm cease-fire," which gave international health workers – including the Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program – an unprecedented period of almost six months of relative peace, allowing health workers to enter areas of Sudan previously inaccessible due to fighting. President Carter also brokered the 1999 Nairobi Agreement between the governments of Sudan and Uganda, in which the governments pledged to stop supporting rebels acting against each other's governments.

Read full text on the Carter Center's peace work in Sudan >

Fighting Disease

The Center's first project in the region formerly known as Sudan was agricultural development work begun in 1986 through Sasakawa-Global 2000. The work focused on helping farmers to greatly improve crop yields. From that first activity, the Center has continually expanded its efforts to help the long-suffering people of Sudan and South Sudan through four programs that have operated in the countries — two of which are active in South Sudan today. The Guinea Worm Eradication Program, the flagship public health program of The Carter Center, has helped reduce the worldwide incidence of Guinea worm disease by 99 percent since it started in 1986. Guinea worm disease will be the first parasitic disease to be eradicated and the first disease to be eradicated without using vaccines. Because South Sudan harbors the vast majority of the remaining cases of Guinea worm, it is a crucial site for eradication efforts.

The success of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program also has been a vehicle for development and has broadly promoted Sudanese and South Sudanese public health and welfare, while fostering the introduction of two additional health programs, river blindness and trachoma, to the region. However, the continued vitality of this public health work relies on sustained peace between the two nations.

Read full text on the Carter Center's health work in Sudan >