For millions in southern Sudan, the New Year has finally brought them the gift they have long wished for: peace and a journey back home. On Jan. 9, the government of Sudan signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese Peace and Liberation Army (SPLA), ending “Africa's longest running war,” 21 years of war that claimed the lives of 2 million people and displaced over 4 million from their homes. Sudanese children who were born in refugee camps in neighboring Kenya will finally be able to come back home to Sudan, a dream once out of reach for them.

While this hard-won peace agreement is a victory for all sides, it is not a comprehensive agreement. It also does not recognize the war that is being waged by the government against the people in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Analysts, however, believe that the pact in the south will provide a framework to also bring peace to Darfur.

Peace agreement ends conflict

The peace agreement signed in Nairobi, Kenya, would form a government of national unity in which the leader of the SPLA, John Garang, will serve as the country's vice president. Legislative power will now be shared between the north and the south and so will Sudan's rich oil revenues.

Religious freedom was one of the contentions between the mostly Christian south and the government that wished to institute Islamic law for the entire country. Southern Sudan's 10 states are now permitted to be secular while northern Sudan will adopt Islamic law.

The most successful agreement, however, is the referendum which will give southern Sudan autonomy to decide in six years whether to become its own self-ruling, independent state. In addition, the United Nations hopes to send 10,000 troops beginning in May to southern Sudan to monitor the cease fire. The Security Council has yet to approve the mission.
 

Genocide in Darfur continues

The victory of the recent peace agreement is marred by the ongoing conflict in Darfur, which has claimed more than 100,000 lives and displaced more than 2 million people. Still hundreds of thousands of people have not received humanitarian aid, and millions more risk losing their lives if stability to the region is not quickly restored.

UUSC members and supporters have responded to several action alerts on behalf of the people of Darfur. International attention to the ethnic cleansing of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa people is crucial as the escalating crisis echoes the 1984 genocide in Rwanda.

UUSC's Darfur Relief Fund will support two organizations in the region, Darfur Peace and Development, and Action by Churches Together. These organizations are aiding in emergency response with the goal of achieving sustainable peace and development for the region.

The Sudanese government has rejected Western troops on its soil and has only agreed to welcome African Union forces. There are approximately 900 African forces in Darfur, with plans to deploy more than 3,000 in the coming months. These troops, limited by a mandate to function only as military observers, are reportedly underequipped, lacking the logistical and technical support to patrol this region which is the size of Texas.

The Sudanese government has consistently violated U.N. Security Council resolutions that demanded the disarmament and prosecution of the Janjaweed Arab militias supported by the government in Khartoum. UUSC and other human rights groups have called on the Security Council to use the International Criminal Court to prosecute the guilty parties for the mass atrocities they have committed in Darfur.