ICG: War in Sudan could expand

The international advocacy group says the situation could get out of control without international actors intervening

There is a real threat of the conflict in Sudan spreading across the country if international actors don’t step in, an international advocacy group said on Monday.The International Crisis Group (ICG), a non-governmental organization, released a conflict risk alert report on the current situation in Sudan, which warns of the contagious nature of the war, in the wake of recent events.

“There is a real possibility of a new era of protracted civil war in Sudan if key international actors are not able to contain it. Fighting could quickly expand both within Sudan and spill over into South Sudan,” the ICG said in a statement.

The conflict that broke out between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) forces and the government in Sudan’s Blue Nile state on September 1 extended the civil war in the country to a third front, apart from the conflicts in Darfur and South Kordofan.

“The situation will escalate if the international community is delayed or disjointed in its response,” the report warns, adding, “Unfortunately, the NCP no longer trusts the key interlocutors who engaged previously, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Norway, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the European Union.”

The reason for this, the report claims, is Khartoum’s suspicion that the international community largely favors a regime change in the country.

The ICG makes recommendations for the immediate resumption of talks between the North and the South, claiming that the issues in Blue Nile and South Kordofan have a lot in common with the issues in Darfur.

“The international community should unite behind a single approach to begin addressing internal Sudan crises. A sustainable solution to these must focus on a cessation of hostilities and an inclusive national dialogue consisting of renegotiating the relationship between the centre and peripheries, and agreement on decentralisation and a redistribution of power leading to a new constitution, on the basis of which a referendum and new elections should be held,” it says.