North threatens war on South Sudan’s new currency

The latest step towards South Sudan’s emergence as a fully-fledged independent state is the launching of its own currency, the South Sudan pound, which went into circulation for the first time today.

But, like pretty much everything in South Sudan the distribution of the new notes sparked warlike talk in Khartoum.

Juba and Khartoum are negotiating the removal from circulation of old Sudan pounds currently in use in the south but these talks have foundered as the north announced it was be issuing its own new currency later this month.

Juba argues that Khartoum’s Central Bank must buyback the old notes at their face value, while Khartoum says the old notes will be worthless.

The deputy governor of the Central Bank of Sudan, Badr al-Deen Mahmood, said the north was ready for a “currency war”.

His boss, bank governor Mohamed Kheir al-Zubeir, added: “We do not want to buy [the old currency]. We want them to surrender it to us because it is valueless.”

The Central Bank of South Sudan was officially established last week as the new currency arrived in the capital Juba by cargo plane. The new notes will gradually replace the old ones over the next three months.

The new South Sudan pound will replace the old Sudan pound and have an equal value, one-to-one. Imagery of Khartoum’s high-rises is replaced with a portrait of John Garang, the father of South Sudan’s liberation movement who died in a helicopter crash six years ago.