Southern Sudan may return to war: aid agencies

[StarfarerBill]

Source: CBC

Sudan's volatile southern region could once again collapse into chaos if the international community does not do more to strengthen the 2005 peace deal that ended more than 20 years of civil war, aid organizations warn.

The first multi-party elections in more than two decades are set for April, and the groups said in a report released Thursday in Nairobi, Kenya, that a referendum on independence for the south in January 2011 also could re-ignite the war that killed two million people.

The 10 aid agencies, including Oxfam International, Save the Children and World Vision, also worry about disputes between the south and north over oil.

The report, entitled Rescuing the Peace in Southern Sudan, said some 2,500 people were killed and 350,000 others were displaced in 2009 due to an upsurge in violence.

It warned that "a return to conflict would have devastating consequences that extend far beyond southern Sudan."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/01/08/sudan-war-aid.html

[NJmaverick]

1. I am very thankful we have Hillary to help President Obama deal

with these seemingly endless number of foreign problems.

[dugaresa]

2. where there is Oil, generally there is War.

what a shame.

[Don Caballero]

3. As unpopular as it may be

We may have to send peace keeping forces into Sudan and possibly Somalia to quell the Al Qaeda terrorists using them as safe havens.

[Flaneur]

5. Us and whose army?

[Don Caballero]

6. the UN

[DeeOwl]

4. War is coming! The southern Sudanesse are aming for Khartoum...

The southern Sudanese have armed themselves plenty in the last few years. Anyone remember that report where Somali pirates hijacked a Ukrainian ship only to find out that it was loaded with tanks and other heavy weaponry, and it was later revealed that the final destination was the southern Sudanese authorities. They must be flush with money. I know at least two different major fundie churches in my area that have been sending money to southern Sudan since at least 1980s and they don't even hide the fact that money is going towards buying weapons. They seem quite proud of it and everybody donating knows where it goes. If some Muslim cleric was caught sending donation money to Afghanistan for such purposes, how long would it take for him to be shipped to Gutmo, for the mosque to be shut down, and for the funds to be frozen? Days? Hours? These god-fearing Christian folk have been doing the same for decades when it comes to sending money to their Christian brethren in southern Sudan.

Watch the situation go from bad to worse in the next 12-18 months. Hopefully Ethiopians learned their lesson in Somalia and they will stay uninvolved. I wouldn't put it past the southern Sudanese to try and take Khartoum this time around. They can't achieve that goal of course, the logistics are simply not there no matter how many secret shipments of tanks they received, but I'm sure they will give it good try, this is Africa after all, and they got every fundie church in America egging them on. And our government will let them fail on purpose so when Khartoum finally retaliates (and they will) we have a reason to parachute marines into downtown Khartoum, for some regime-change ops.

[Igel]

7. Not all politics is that narrowly local. n/t