The World's Newest Nation

It was only a matter of time. Not very much time, at that. Any onlooker might have predicted that it would come to this, and worse. In fact, it never stopped; it's just now in the process of escalating, and escalating to the point of no return. The bloodshed that Sudan saw in its civil war in which two million people died, and which the long-awaited partition vote resulting in the creation and UN acknowledgement of the country of South Sudan, will soon be re-visited.

Squabbling and violence between the north and the south never really ceased. It was land, of course, and the use of the land, the nomadic sheep-herders versus the traditional farmers. It was territory of course, that the north did not wish to surrender to the south. Above all, it was oil wealth that complicated the issue beyond measure. The threats that ominously emanated from the north to the south did not, however, deter the people of the south from claiming their autonomy.

But even though the two countries are now separate, and they are, for all intents and purposes, irreconcilable, there are other areas of Sudan that pose a challenge to the domination of the government in Khartoum. It is an area of the world where tribalism, clan warfare, religious strife and ethnicity all conspire to continue the war footing.

The Islamic government that rules Sudan and which violated the human rights of its black African farmers in Darfur, by mass deportation, mass rape, mass murder is set to repeat the crimes that the International Criminal Court found its president, Omar al-Bashir guilty of: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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Al Bashir is contemptuous of the charges and has refused the court's summons to appear before it. He has the support of all the Islamic countries of the Middle East and Africa. He will not be held to account, to stand before any elements of the West representing the international community and he is free to continue his oppression, exploitation, human rights abuses, and war against Black Sudanese.

The Arab/Muslim dominated north is free to and will continue to dominate the non-Muslim, African-populated south. Sudan's military, with its bombers, fighter jets, ground troops, armoured personnel carriers, battle tanks and artillery is prepared to mount their offensive against the ill-equipped people of the south.

Assaults against various southern regions of the country are ongoing to drive out the rebels battling the Muslim forces. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the areas under attack, some crossing over into Ethiopia as refugees. As for the new nation of South Sudan, UN agencies point out a chronic food shortage, a refugee problem, and security problems.

Stressed additionally by inter-communal conflicts that are so common in Africa with battles over tribal entitlements, land, animals, access to water, a famine situation is emerging where a third of the population is said to be "moderately or severely food insecure".

Not a very auspicious coming-out for the world's newest nation.