Sudan

Key Issues

Seven years after Sudan became an independent state in 1956, Sudan's civil war began in 1963, when rebels of the south fought the central government, controlled by an Arab Muslim elite. Although the war came to an end in 1972 when the central government provided the south with a level of autonomy, fighting broke out again in 1983 as the result of a movement led by John Garang and the newly created Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). While Garang advocated for "diversity in unity," many in the south were more supportive of full independence. (https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/sudan/2013-10-08/sudan-and-south-sudan-inch-toward-war)

In 2005, a peace agreement was signed that paved the way to South Sudan's independence. The central government relinquished a third of its territory and three-quarters of its oil resources to the south. However, in 2011, just a month shy of South Sudan's official emergence as an independent state, those sympathetic to the SPLM/A in the north, called SPLM/N in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan regions of Sudan near the new Sudan-South Sudan border, resumed fighting. The new border presented practical challenges to those used to freedom of movement for purposes such as trade, grazing, and access to water sources, as well as associated administrative challenges for the two governments. Moreover, regions like the Blue Nile were home to Christian as well as non-Arab Muslim tribes, which felt that they had no place in the newly delineated Sudanese state. The president, Omar al-Bashir, had made clear that Sudan would be governed henceforth by Sharia and Islam, with Arabic as the new official language. On the other side of the border were towns such as Unity, in which remained a number of northern fighters. The presence of rebels on both sides of the border ensured that conflict in the borderlands continued, up to the present day. (https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/sudan/2013-10-08/sudan-and-south-sudan-inch-toward-war)

Related Blog Entries

References

Tubiana, Jérôme. "Sudan and South Sudan inch toward war: Letter from the borderlands," Foreign Affairs, October 8, 2013. (https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/sudan/2013-10-08/sudan-and-south-sudan-inch-toward-war)