The tale of two Sudans

The fight for the two Sudans started much earlier than on 9th July, 2011 when South Sudan separated from Sudan to become the latest entrant on the map of nations. The tale of these Sudans is not much different from  the rest of Africa when comparison is made either in contemporary times or historically.

Africa has diversity and the diversity of tribes is one of the aspects. Each tribe has tried to carve their own territory or nation as we call in modern times. 

But the roots of the current state of chaos across Africa,including warring Sudans, whether Mali crisis or Eastern Congo crisis or disputes over Western Sahara territory or Senegal et al, no less owe their origin to the 1884-85 Berlin Conference whether an arbitrary division of territories was done to carve out nations to be divided among the COLONIAL masters.

No account of the diversity of tribes, their trend of dwelling places et al was taken into account. Post independence of these African countries in mid 20th century, the result in the long term has been similar, if not resulting in the same consequences but at least damaging stability, to what ensued after drawing arbitrary Radcliffe line through Indian during partition.

There are warring factions, warlords, fiefdoms, guerrilla fighters spread across Africa each fighting to claim some piece of Africa as their own. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda was a result of clashes between Hutu and Tusti tribes (a good piece of movie "Hotel Rwanda" made on this - )

Further, these chaos are fueled by drug trafficking, arms dumping, human trafficking et al in which vested political and economic interests from other parts of the world too play a role. "Lord of War", though fictitious in account, the movie is almost a bird's eye view of  how Cold War led to arms dumping, how together with gun running, drug traffickers and blood diamond the chaos spread across West Africa sparking feuds among warlords. The trailer can be watched here -

Though Sudan was separated to meet demands of different rebel groups, the peace still eluded the people. All the oil had gone to South Sudan but the pipe to export oil went through Sudan to the Red Sea. An agreement however was reached in this regard between two in August. However, territory disputes on border areas still continue. 

Two Sudans continue to be skeptical of each other as well as rebel groups. The mutual suspicion might be the cause that a recent UN peacekeeping mission helicopter was shot down in South Sudan for mistaking it as enemy plane.