THE CONFLICT

Civil war has been commonplace in Sudan, plaguing the country since their independence from Britain in 1956. The religious war between the Government of Sudan (aka the National Islamic Front – NIF – capital at Khartoum)  and the diverse African ethnic groups in the south struggling for freedom, many of whom are Christian, has devastated the country and its people – displacing over five million and taking the lives of over two million in the last civil war alone.

After British independence, different parties and powers rose up necessitating the ten year peace agreement that was signed in 1972. This pact allowed for more southern autonomy but was reneged in 1983 when Islamic Shari’a law was imposed throughout the land. Shari’a law governs both the private and public lives of those living in an Islamic state. Its jurisdiction ranges anywhere from politics and economics to social issues and basic day-to-day activities.

The south revolted and under the leadership of John Garang (founder of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement), civil war began between the north and the south. At the hands of the NIF, Southern villages and territory were systematically destroyed via a brutal rape campaign, ethnic cleansing, scorched earth policies, and routine aerial bombardments.

In July 2003, a cease-fire was declared between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Though fighting on both sides continued throughout the peace negotiations, a deal between the government and the SPLA was signed in January 2005, ending 20 years of brutal civil war. The agreement addresses power and wealth sharing as well as the possibility of southern sovereignty by the year 2011.

As Sudan's civil war seemed to be coming to an end, another war intensified in the northwestern Darfur region. Pro-government Arab militias called the Janjaweed, believed to have been aided by the government, carried out massacres against black villagers and rebel groups in the region, killing an estimated 400,000 civilians and displacing more than 2 million. Called the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, the international community has been ineffective in persuading the Sudanese government to rein in the Janjaweed. Despite the EU and the US describing the killing as genocide, and despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding that Sudan stop the Arab militias, the killing continues.

Get the latest news from Sudan by visiting the Sudan news section of the website.

Sources: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107996.html, http://www3.baylor.edu/~Charles_Kemp/sudanese_refugees.htm, "A Brief History of Sudan" by Ashley Hankins