South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has expressed his region's desire for self-determination. He was addressing a meeting of African heads of States in Nairobi. Sudan is due to hold its first elections in 24 years next month. The elections will be followed by a referendum on whether the south should secede or not.

Kiir had this to say: "I would like to remind the august summit that the conduct of the elections is not a prerequisite to the conduct of referendum, the people of south Sudan even attach more importance to the referendum than to the elections."

The North and South Sudan signed a peace agreement in 2005, ending the country's 20 year war. Meanwhile it has been a year since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant of arrest against Sudan's President Omar al Bashir, on charges of crimes against humanity.

But fighting is still raging on in Darfur and much of Sudan. Humanitarian aid workers operating in Sudan say most of their work inside Sudan is still restricted putting the lives of vulnerable groups especially women and children at risk.

Alun Mcdonald works for the charity group Oxfam: "Over the last few weeks there have been a lot of fighting again, thousands of people have fled their homes and quite a few people killed. One of the biggest problems at the moment is that the places where there have been fighting, there is not a lot of access so aid agencies and even the UN peacekeepers have not been able to get to the worst affected areas."