Originally published on the CGS blog on May 3, 2012.
Early this morning, Sudan has endorsed the African Union’s “peace road map” to avoid an all-out war with South Sudan. This came after South Sudan had endorsed the AU’s plan themselves. The AU’s plan includes seven specific steps, including a deadline of this Tuesday to restart negotiations and a three-month grace period after that to agree upon a more concrete solution.
Just yesterday, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution that would take “appropriate measures,” including nonmilitary sanctions, if Sudan and South Sudan did not resolve all outstanding issues, namely border disputes, uneven divisions of oil revenues, and the citizenship of Sudanese and South Sudan peoples. As previously mentioned, tensions have flared between the two nations just a few months after South Sudan’s July 2011 independence, which followed a peace treaty signed in 2005.
Calling the situation “a serious threat to international peace and security,” the U.N. Security Council decided that Sudan and South Sudan must cease all hostility immediately, withdraw all armed forces to their respectable sides of the border, and activate all necessary border security measures within one week, and to immediately cease “hostile propaganda,” like the comments from President Omar al-Bashir, when he called the government of South Sudan “insects.”
Hopefully this will push both Sudan and South Sudan to start cooperating and to resume the much needed diplomatic negotiations. The issues still remain in this tense situation, with the added complication of the long history of animosity between the two regions. The hope and promise of the July 2011 Comprehensive Peace Agreement has been over shadowed by the recent flare-up of conflict and hateful rhetoric. Sending a united message from the international community that violence and war will not be acceptable is progress, but let us hope that both sides hold up their side of the process.
