South Sudan

In 1983, barely a decade after the much-heralded end to the first civil war, Sudan was once again wrapped up in civil war that caused the deaths of an estimated 2 million Sudanese, mostly southerners and civilians. The primary causes of the war lay in Khartoum’s policies towards the South, which included exploiting the South’s oil wealth, while neglecting to invest in the region’s development. As a result, jobs, wealth and public services were concentrated in the ‘Arab triangle’ region. At the same time, the government in Khartoum brutally imposed Arabism and Islam on the south and denied southern autonomy.

Although now this conflict is seen as a war for independence, many leaders of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) – the main rebel group – including its founder John Garang, favored the creation of what they referred to as “New Sudan” with equal rights for all groups and regions, rather than the creation of an independent South Sudan. And, until relatively recently, many observers thought that “insurmountable obstacles” – including the demarcation of a border, the presence of oil wealth, and the citizenship of Sudanese living across the new border –  made independence “not a viable alternative”.