The southern Sudanese have fought for independence for decades, and in January, nearly 99 percent of the region’s voters approved a split from northern Sudan in an internationally backed referendum. . . . Southern Sudan will be named the Republic of South Sudan upon independence.
But there are still a number of delicate and potentially combustible issues that need to be resolved before Sudan can peacefully break in two. Conflicts remained over how the two sides would share the south’s sizable reserves of crude oil and what to do about the Abyei region, which straddles the north-south border and is claimed by both.
Mr. Bashir seems to be steering his country back toward war. His troops and tanks violently annexed Abyei in May. Then he sent thousands of soldiers into two other volatile areas, Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan, while continuing a crippling blockade of the south, strangling it of food and fuel.
At the same time, renegade southern militias, widely believed to be armed by Mr. Bashir’s intelligence services, have stepped up their attacks, hitting army bases, snatching weapons and stretching southern troops thin as they scramble to meet all these threats, often hijacking United Nations vehicles to get to the battlefield.
But diplomats and analysts believe that, rather than trying to start a major conflict, Mr. Bashir may instead be playing out a carefully devised strategy meant to ensure just one thing: that when southern Sudan declares independence in July, his northern government controls as much oil as possible, or at least is richly compensated.
Psalm 83:13 (NIV)
Make them like tumbleweed, my God, like chaff before the wind.
Pursue Mr. Bashir’s forces with your tempest and terrify them with your storm, O Lord. Oh, that the structure of northern Sudan’s internal security, their armed forces and intelligence services, and the establishment of their alliances would be destroyed, stripped of all power, and completely exhausted. Let it be! Amen.
