As the January 9th, 2011 referendum draws closer the international community is getting concerned about the consequences of Southern Sudanese independence. Many fear that the north, led by the strongman Omar al-Bashir, will not honor the CPA and let the Southerners go. Southern stability is also a concern. Once in the early 1990s the SPLA/M split along ethnic lines (Machar, the leader of the splinter SPLA-Nasir, eventually came back to the fold). Recent skirmishes in the South are testament to the fact that ethnicized civil war may yet visit an independent Southern Sudan.
Check out this post on FP.
In other news, the Continental club of ineffectual autocrats African Union is meeting in Uganda. More on this soon.
Filed under: africa Tagged: Addis Ababa, African Union, Foreign Policy, John Garang, Juba, Kampala, Khartoum, OAU, Omar al-Bashir, riek machar, Salva Kir, Southern Sudan, SPLA/M, Stephen Walt, Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement, Yoweri Museveni
