The sudden escalation of hostilities along the oil rich border between Sudan and South Sudan, and the aerial bombing of Heglig last month, have drawn the international community’s attention to the African region. History has been unkind to the Sudanese, who are ethnically, culturally and religiously divided into Christians (south) and Arabs (north).
During British colonisation, the two regions were administered separately, but the south was barely developed. The conflict dates back to more than 50 years; however, the last 20 years have seen serious civil wars between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Khartoum government of President Omar Al-Bashir. On January 9, 2011, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CAP) was reached after two bloodiest civil wars between Muslim Arabs and Christian Africans, in which about two million people lost their lives. After referendum on July 9, 2011, South Sudan finally seceded as an independent state under the rule of Salva kirr Mayardit, as the former SPLA leader, John Garang, died in a helicopter accident just three weeks after he was sworn in as the first Vice President of Sudan.
Even after becoimg independent, the two states remained at odds with each other. The newly born South Sudan was offered little or no economic, social or political help from the north; instead disputes continued over the provinces such as South Kordofan in the Nuba region, Abyei on the border, and Blue Nile. There are also tensions about the fate of oil rich border states, the landlocked South Sudan's oil pipelines that runs northwards through Sudan and the issue of refugee influx along the border because of the ongoing killing of civilians by the militia i.e. SPLA - north, which is basically South Sudanese-affiliated black rebel force operating against the Arab forces in Darfur. In short, it is a military conflict between Janjaweed (an Arab tribe’s militia force covertly funded and supported by the Sudan government) and the rebel armies, including  SPLA and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), over land, water and natural resources resulting in the Darfur crisis since 2003. The internal dimension of the conflict lies in the fact that the international community condemns South Sudan for waging a war on the north. Khartoum accuses the SPLA of launching aggression on its territory; that is why it has retaliated by bombing South Sudan. Technically, Khartoum is right as the troops fighting are the SPLA soldiers. Yet, they are actually not from South Sudan so Juba apparently denies its involvement in the war in northern Sudan.
To make it simpler, we must take a glance at the history of South Sudan that was a separate entity until 1947, when it was integrated into Sudan under British rule. With growing grievances against Khartoum, certain communities from South Kordofan and Blue Nile region joined the central SPLA. Even the Darfur conflict was aggravated by certain marginalised factions, who were trained and supported by SPLA although they did not join it. Therefore, by the time the CPA was signed in 2005, SPLA was fragmented into two divisions; one formed the South Sudan and the other communities from regions like South Kordofan and Blue Nile - excluding Darfur that remained inside northern Sudan. Khartoum at that time calculated that if it got rid of South Sudan, it would effectively break up the SPLA in the middle, separating the strong part of SPLA from the weaker one and gradually SPLA would have little interest in helping the other marginalised regions; hence, Bashir would be able to subdue this weak resistance against his regime. Later on, however, these communities felt betrayed by the main faction of SPLA, which left them in a relatively weaker position after independence and could not pressure Khartoum to reach an agreement. Bashir’s regime failed to redress their concerns and so they launched a civil war against it that led to the turmoil in the border region between the two states. Anyway, the President is trying to gain international support to initiate a war against South Sudan. It is interesting to note that Khartoum has always resisted demarcating the border between the two countries, thus giving a clear picture of the internal dimension of Sudan’s conflict and Bashir’s mindset.
To deal with the crisis, the international community, including the African Union, China, Russia and the US, have stepped up their efforts to resolve the issue by acting as mediators and threatened Sudan and South Sudan of sanctions if they do not comply with the Union’s demand to settle the dispute. Despite Bashir’s acceptance of an African Union plan to resume talks with South Sudan, bombing of the border areas continue. The Sudan conflict cannot be resolved until both the states cooperate with each other to settle their decade-old conflict and ensure peace and stability. To sum up the issue, both the states instead of dividing into an "African" south and an "Arab" north, should try to respect the international norms of peace, humanity, justice and equality; and try to establish two African states marked by ethnic, cultural and religious harmony of the heterogeneous factions in the African region.

n    The writer is currently working for Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI).
    Email: research.pak@gmail.com