With Darfur now (rightly) dominating news coverage about Sudan, it's easy to forget that until 2005 the country was engaged in a bloody civil war. That conflict – between the north (with its largely Muslim population, housing the capital Khartoum) and the south (mostly Christian and Animist, with more productive land) – lasted two decades and claimed the lives of 1.5 million people. Recently, the peace deal has appeared fragile, with the ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) pulling out of the nation's power-sharing government. Now, it seems, solutions may have been found - a deal has been struck to rotate the home of government every three months, between Khartoum and the southern city of Juba. Troop withdrawals will follow, and a national census is planned. The final outstanding issue – how to share the country's oil wealth – is apparently also close to resolution. The SPLM Secretary General said today, "We are hopeful that by Saturday there may be a solution - we are hopeful." Well, then, we must be hopeful too. Even more so if the momentum of success can help generate similar 'deals' for the people of Darfur.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
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Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir has long held UN peacekeepers at arm's length while genocide and unthinkable suffering has swept Darfur. Recent reports suggested that things were deteriorating even further, so this news of real progress is to be welcomed.
China and oil are the sub-text, fuelled by a religious and ethnic divide that seemed unending. A rotating locus of government is an innovative solution to what could be an insoluble problem – so let’s hope it is the engine for change.
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