FACTBOX-Despite Darfur, peace in Sudan’s south

April 11, 2007 — Sudan is most often in the news for the conflict in the far western region of Darfur. But in the meantime peace has returned to the south after more than 20 years of civil war.

Here are some facts about Sudan and its turbulent recent history:

* Sudan is Africa’s largest country with an area of 2.5 million sq km (967,500 sq miles) and a population of 37 million. It straddles the middle reaches of the Nile and is bordered by Egypt to the north; the Red Sea, Ethiopia and Eritrea to the east; Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the south; and the Central African Republic, Chad and Libya to the west.

The north-south conflict:

* In 1983, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the main southern rebel group led by tha late John Garang, took up arms against the Khartoum government, partly in response to the imposition of Islamic sharia law by the government of the time.

* The war pitted the black African south, which is mainly Christian and animist, against the mainly Muslim, Arabic-speaking north. The war was complicated by tribal and factional fighting, as well as the conflict over oil.

* In 2004 a deal between the southern rebels and the Khartoum government cleared the way for a comprehensive peace to end the 21-year-old civil war in the south, in which more than 2 million people died either directly or indirectly.

* Under peace protocols signed in January 2005:

— The south has the right to vote for secession at the end of a six-year interim period during which Islamic sharia law will apply in the north but not in the south.

— 50 percent of net oil revenue from oil in southern Sudan should be allocated to the government of southern Sudan during the six-year period. The remainder will go to the national government and northern states.

* In September 2005 a new power-sharing government was announced.

Darfur in the west:

* Rebels rose up against the government in February 2003, saying Khartoum discriminated against non-Arab farmers in Darfur in favour of Arab tribes. More than 2 million Muslim Darfuris, mainly subsistence farmers from a wide variety of ethnic groups for whom Arabic is a second language, have fled their homes.

* Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, with the connivance of the Sudanese army, drove farmers from their land in a campaign rights groups said amounted to ethnic cleansing and the United States has called genocide.

* The Sudanese government has said the Janjaweed are outlaws and has vowed to disarm them. The United Nations has said Sudan has done very little to disarm the Arab militias.

* Some 200,000 people have died from disease and starvation during the years of fighting, as well as violence.

* The peace deal in the south of Sudan may have emboldened the rebels to believe they could win a better deal by resorting to arms, analysts say.

The conflict in the east:

* A low-level rebellion which lasted a decade in the east of the country came to an end in October 2006 when the rebels and the government signed a power-sharing agreement.

(Reuters)