Folly of civil war

Editorial, East African Standard

NAIROBI, June 7, 2004 — More than two decades ago, Mr John Garang took up arms to wage war against the government in Khartoum from the south of the Sudan, Africa’s largest country. Then, as now, the grievance of the people in the south of Sudan was that they did not share in the wealth of their country, which, they said, was monopolized by the north.

Khartoum dug in and the fighting has raged since with no clear winner in sight, but massive dislocations of personal and regional economies have been abundant and huge waves of refugees have crossed into neighbouring countries.

After millions have lost their lives and billions spent in fighting, both the hard men of Khartoum and their adversaries in the south have realized their folly and signed a peace accord and heralded a new era in the way the Sudan will be run.

Strictly speaking they did not need to kill and main, dislocate and displace their people and divert hard earned money into military hardware if they had agreed to talk to each other more than two decades ago.

Will the warring clan leaders in Somalia see this now?