Mennonite Central Committee

Origins of the Conflicts in Sudan

Tammy Alexander, MCC Washington Office
January 2008

“This peace of ours is like a sick man in the hospital. You don’t want to say for sure that he is going to be coming home because as long as he is in the hospital and sick, he might still die.” - Sudan war widow

In 2005, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed in Sudan by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Government of Sudan (GOS) ending one of Africa’s deadliest and longest running civil wars. This conflict, between government forces and the SPLM, lasted more than two decades, claimed two-million lives and displaced four-million people.

Months before the signing of the CPA, a new and devastating conflict emerged in Darfur in western Sudan. This new conflict has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced over two-million people. The Darfur conflict has been termed the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis” and its effects have spread to the neighboring countries of Chad and the Central African Republic.

In April 2006, the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) was signed with the hope that it would bring an end to the conflict. Unfortunately, due to fracturing of the rebel groups and continued intransigence on the part of the GOS, the situation is worse today than it was in 2006. The latest round of Darfur Peace talks, which commenced in October 2007 in Libya, were disappointing and yielded little progress due to a boycott by many of the rebel groups. The continued fracturing of rebel groups in Darfur has made it impossible to bring a united agenda to such negotiations.

With an increase in violence and displacement, the humanitarian situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate. In January 2008, a United Nations-African Union hybrid peacekeeping force was finally deployed to protect civilians. However, with only 9,000 peacekeepers (far short of the goal of 26,000) and without adequate resources to deter attacks, its effectiveness remains questionable.

Of equal concern is the fear that peace will fall apart in the South, leading once again into open warfare. In October 2007, the SPLM pulled its ministers out of the national government to protest the lack of progress in implementing key components of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). This includes missed deadlines for withdrawing northern Sudan Armed Forces from specified areas of the South, failure to make progress on the demarcation of borders (which affects oil revenue sharing) and failure to make progress toward democratic elections. While the SPLM ministers have now returned to the government, concerns about these issues remain.

Though the war in the South did not capture the spotlight in the U.S. like the Darfur conflict has, it was equally gruesome and shared many of the same root causes. It is important to understand that both conflicts have a common origin.

Abel Alier, former vice-president of Sudan, asserts that the root causes of the conflicts between Sudan’s center and its hinterland lie in decades of structural marginalization and in the exclusion and neglect of rural Sudanese in the country’s public affairs and decision making. Religion and ethnicity are then used by those in power to divide and further marginalize these communities.

The United States played a big role in brokering the CPA, producing a remarkable document that offers a unique resolution to one of the most complicated wars in Africa. However, this agreement is currently in danger of falling apart. It is essential that the U.S. government use its influence and resources to see that the CPA is fully implemented. The consequences of the CPA falling apart are too grave to be ignored.

The conflict in Darfur has gone on too long. Again, immediate U.S. government action is needed. Such action can be most effective when the U.S. acts as part of a strong coalition of countries working to put pressure on the Government of Sudan and bring rebel groups to the negotiating table.

Each of us can do our part by urging President Bush and our members of Congress to take immediate action to help the people of Sudan. We must be committed to stopping the violence in Darfur and keeping the peace in southern Sudan.

Tammy Alexander is the current Legislative Assistant for International Affairs in the MCC Washington Office.