New ICG Report on Sudan

The International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based, leading think tank on Sudan issues, published a new report on Sudan today. The report, entitled A Strategy for Comprehensive Peace in Sudan, can be found here. In short, the report argues that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the North-South war in 2004 is now threatened by many factors, including the world’s focus on the other Sudan conflict in Darfur. It suggests that there should be a new strategy that addresses Sudan conflicts in a more comprehensive way.

I still haven’t finished reading the in its entirety, but judging on its executive summary and recommendations, I can see it represents a departure from previous ICG assessments. Not that I read every ICG publication on Sudan, but I don’t remember the group advocating a comprehensive solution to Sudan problems as it did in this latest report. Another observation I made is that the report clearly acknowledges democratic transformation as part of the solution for the country’s complex problems. These two key factors have been overshadowed for years by a popular two-dimensional view that sees Sudan conflicts as being between Muslims and Christians, North and South, or Arabs and Africans. While this view has merit, it fails to identify the festering governance problem as the single, most serious among all Sudan ills. It is refreshing to see ICG developing a strategy for comprehensive peace in Sudan that seems to acknowledge that regardless of who is governing in Khartoum, partial solutions can come back to haunt partial peace achievements.