AFRICA/SUDAN - Peace at risk in Sudan, says report from Denis Hurley Peace Institute

Khartoum (Agenzia Fides) – Is peace at risk in Sudan? This is the question posed by the report presented today, March 30, by the Denis Hurley Peace Institute, sponsored by the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC), the Bishops' Conference that brings together the Bishops of South Africa, Botswana, and Swaziland.
The report features an analysis of the current situation in Sudan, five years after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended 22 years of civil war. The article was written by John Ashworth, a long-time political analyst of Sudan. The article examines the increasing violence in southern Sudan, the marginalization of the southern leaders in the Government of National Unity, and the deepening mistrust of the southerners towards the Islamic rulers of the North, as factors that may derail the peace process as the country gears up towards the first general elections scheduled in April and the referendum on the self-determination of the South in 2011.
Not all the observers of Sudanese issues, however, are so pessimistic. In a recent interview with Fides, Archbishop Leo Boccardi, Apostolic Nuncio to Sudan and Eritrea, gave an analysis that was more cautious and more open to the hope of peace (see Fides 22/1/2010). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 30/3/2010)