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| Africa Horn |
| Eastern Sudan tempts Darfurian fate |
| 2006-03-07 |
| With conflict rife in SudanÂ’s troubled Darfur, and peace still tenuous in the south, another of SudanÂ’s marginalized regions could be set to erupt. Eastern Sudan ostensibly exhibits many of the same traits that led to war in Darfur since 2003 and in southern Sudan from 1983-2005. Claims of marginalization exacerbated by national and local ethnic differences and clashes over natural resources has contributed to the conflicts southern Sudan and Darfur. The same dynamics are in place in eastern Sudan. On 24 January 2005, three weeks after the Sudanese government and the southern-based Sudan PeopleÂ’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the Sudanese army opened fire on a demonstration in the eastern city of Port Sudan, on the Red Sea coast. At least 20 people were killed. This incident plus the ongoing government clampdown, tensions both generated and exacerbated by the signing of the CPA, and the potent example of government tactics in Darfur all contributed to the formation of the Eastern Front in February 2005. The newly formed and relatively unexamined movement promises to forcibly resist KhartoumÂ’s likely attempt to retake the Hameshkoreb enclave in eastern Sudan, near the Eritrean border, once the former SPLM/A withdraws. Much, much more at the link. |
| Posted by:Steve |