Sudan is at a crossroads and the next 12 months could determine the future of Africa’s largest nation.
In January 2005, the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signalled a new era of hope. The agreement – between Sudan’s central government and the southern-based Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) – brought a formal end to a devastating civil war, which left around two million people dead and four million displaced from their homes. The CPA brought significant, if fragile, gains for southern Sudan, including the establishment of the semiautonomous Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS); significant improvements in security in some areas; the return of many displaced people and refugees to their homes; and the expansion of local markets and trade.
Five years later, the peace agreement is extremely fragile and violence is again increasing. The humanitarian situation, already one of the worst in the world, is deteriorating; and in the eyes of most ordinary southerners, meaningful post-war development has been absent.
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