Fear of fragmentation of northern Sudan

An historian presented a report during a visit to Washington last week contending that “some of the factors unifying Northern Sudan have been seriously weakened” and that conflict is emerging in several regions of the country, reports the Sudan Tribune.

“The main lesson of Northern Sudan’s recent history is that diverse but mismanaged religious and ethnic identities are fragmenting under the pressures of a dominating centre,” wrote Dr. Edward Thomas in the report on safeguarding the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), published by the British think-tank Chatham House.

Time is running out for a peaceful transformation of Sudan before the interim constitutional period ends thirty months from now, he indicated in the report, referring to challenges ahead as a “gathering storm.”