The time is now

On Focus on Africa today you'll no doubt hear about how the SPLM in southern Sudan is now making ominous noises about a unilateral declaration of independence from Khartoum. Seems a bit early doesn't it to be digging trenches and firing up the rhetoric what with the referendum only being in 2011? Not so. As luck would have it, I am putting together the latest issue of the Focus on Africa magazine - synergy we call it here at the BBC - and one of the jewels in our crown in the October to December issue is a piece on just this very issue which argues that decisions made in the next six months will determine the future of Sudan. It's crunch time, as they say.