Sudan: When War is Used as Political Means

By African Bulletin on June 22, 2011

By crushing down the rebels in Abyei and showing its aggressive attitude elsewhere, Khartoum is demonstrating its strength and capability,

from one side, to locally influence the negotiations on the future status of the territory and impact heavily on the negotiating table.  From the other side, Khartoum seems also more concerned about its own internal situation. With the approach of the effective partition of the country, these military campaigns are a way to silence critics within the regime. The central government is very upset by the secession of the south, reacting then against the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM), which is the largest party after the Sudan’s National Congress Party (NCP) in the north. This northerner SPLM branch would not be allowed to continue operating in its current form, “because it is the party of another country (South Sudan). Clearly Khartoum wants to end the “rebellion” of the militia, estimated at 40 000 people, allied to the People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), in the Southern Kordofan. And that is why the religious leaders and activists are accusing Khartoum to carry out ethnic cleansing against the Nuba tribes who rallied the southerners during the civil war. This entire situation is raising more fears that the ongoing conflict on the border between North and South Sudan could worsen and return to war. Other observers believe that all is a military show of force and will not end in general war, at least not in the near future. The best proof is the Abyei deal that paves the way for progress on several other sensitive issues, such as sharing oil revenues and dividing Sudan’s 38 billion dollars debt before Southern Sudan breaks away from northern rule. That is why each party is pushing the other, as far as possible, into more concessions and that what resumes the Khartoum’s game between the political and the military approaches…