First Wednesday: South Sudan – What does the future hold for the world’s youngest country?

Fighting continues as delegations from South Sudan’s warring factions meet for talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The country, which gained its independence in July 2011, has seen at least 1,000 killed and 180,000 displaced since mid-December.

We will be joined by a panel of experts, journalists and aid workers to give you an up-to-date picture of what is happening on the ground and an insight into the divisions and tensions that have caused the conflict.

As fighting between supporters of President Salva Kiir and sacked deputy Riek Machar continue, we ask what the future holds for the world’s youngest country.

Chaired by Lindsey Hilsum, international editor at Channel 4 News and author of Sandstorm; Libya in the Time of Revolution.

The panel:

Heather Pagano joined Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in 2008 and is currently the Regional Information Officer for East and Central Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has a special interest in South Sudan and recently returned from Juba.

James Copnall was the BBC correspondent for Sudan and South Sudan from 2009-12.. He is author of A Poisonous Thorn in Our Hearts: Sudan and South Sudan’s Bitter and Incomplete Divorce which will be published in March 2014. He has just returned from Juba.

Mukesh Kapila, CBE is professor of Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester. Previously he was Under Secretary General at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan.

Thomas Mawan Muortat, is a South Sudan political analyst, with an interest in development, democracy and peace issues. He has lived in the UK since 1984, and has travelled back and forth to South Sudan since 2008.