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Sudan conflicts

Last reviewed: 17-03-2009

Brutal wars in Africa's biggest country


Sudan, the largest country in Africa, has been at war for nearly 50 years. We look at three main conflicts:

  • A brutal 21-year civil war between the north and the south that ended in 2005
  • The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur in the west where at least 300,000 have died and 2.7 million been displaced by fighting since 2003
  • Tensions in eastern Sudan where insurgents have threatened to challenge the government for a share of the country's power and natural-resources.

    An obvious question is: Why is Sudan plagued by internal conflict, and how are these three conflicts related, if at all? There is no easy answer, but a few explanations do shed light on the problem.

    First, colonisers drew the boundaries of present-day Sudan without heed to the different religious and ethnic groups that already inhabited the territory, which was under joint Anglo-Egyptian control until 1956. This set the stage for showdowns between the north, populated predominantly by Arab Muslims, and the south, populated largely by animists and Christians of African origin.

    The British lit the tinderbox when they left by leaving an elite group of northerners in charge.

    Second, over the years those in power in Khartoum have marginalised southerners, Darfuris and several other groups in various pockets of the country, including provinces in eastern Sudan. In addition, the Islamist policies of the government in the 1990s added to the alienation of the southerners.

    Third, rebels in all corners of the country share similar grievances over Khartoum's failure to provide even the most basic of services, and widespread abject poverty has fueled calls to share the wealth.

    The discovery of oil in southern Sudan in 1978 only raised the stakes. Sudan rakes in up to $1 billion year in oil exports but there is little in the way of social services to show for it.

    In 2005, it looked as though Sudan had finally moved to put its house in order. The government and the main rebel group in the south, the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), signed a peace deal that ended the north-south civil war.

    A new power-sharing government was sworn in. But the peace deal looks shaky.

    The conflict in Darfur, the possibility of new violence along the oil-rich north-south border, and tensions in the east, threaten to derail the entire process.

    Former SPLM rebels are now in the central government as ministers, so the fates of the south and of other troubled areas are increasingly linked. Former eastern rebels also hold government posts.

    KEY FACTS


    Total population (2009) 42.3 million (U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs)
    Life expectancy at birth (2005) 57.4 years (UNDP - Human Development Report 2007/2008)
    Total adult literacy rate (2004) 60.9 percent (UNDP 2007/2008)
    Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births (2006) 61 (UNICEF - State of the World's Children 2008)
    Under-5 mortality rate per 1,000 live births (2006) 89 (UNICEF - State of the World's Children 2008)
    Internally displaced people (2009) 4.8 million (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre)
    Percentage of people undernourished (2002-04 average) 26 (UNDP 2007/2008)
    GNI per capita, Atlas method (2007) $950 (World Bank 2008)
    Public expenditure on health as a percent of GDP (2004) 1.5 (UNDP 2007/2008)

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    Last updated:Mon Nov 23 13:40:27 2009