Sudan - The Country

Sudan is not the largest country in Africa. It is actually two countries. There is the north, a dry arid, Islamic land; and there is the south, a lush, animist and Christian land of black-skinned Nilotes. But the SPLA (Sudan's People's Liberation Army) is slowly making its way up north, flowing around and over the northern garrisons like a black wave. There is also another tide that has not begun to rise. It is estimated that Sudan has oil reserves equal to Saudi Arabia.

Sudan is cursed not only by poverty (a per capita income of only US$330), its size (it is the largest country in Africa) and a history of fundamentalist leaders who declare Holy War on the West, but it is also crippled by its dubious distinction of straddling the uneasy and unmarked border between the arid Islamic Arab north and the lush, animistic black south. These two cultures have never dwelled in harmony, and, in Sudan, they never will. The two tribes continue to battle, as the north persists in imposing its political will on the tribal south.

Sudan is 70 percent Muslim, 20 percent animist and 5 percent Christian-a bad mix on any continent. Ethnically, it's an even nastier brew: Sudan is 52 percent black, 39 percent Arab and 6 percent Beja. The hatred between the north and south has killed more than 500,000 people and driven 4.5 million others from their homes. One million have starved to death.

Even the rebel factions are known for their intolerance of each other. They wage warfare against each other, using starvation and terror as weapons of war. The SPLA rebel factions have been known to murder international aid workers and will not even guarantee safe passage for relief aircraft in case they may be providing food or medicine for enemy factions.

Since Iran has 21 years left on its leases of bases in Port Sudan and Suakin, there are thousands of Iranian soldiers stationed and training in Sudan. There is also an Iranian-funded radio station based in Port Sudan that broadcasts Islamic and Iranian propaganda to Egypt and other Arab countries. Sudan's strategic position and its holy alliance with Iran give it a powerful presence in the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa. Iran's recent meddling, and the resultant civil war in nearby Yemen, might provide a good reason to dust off the domino theory formerly applied to Southeast Asia.

Iran pays its new friend with oil and military supplies, while it receives strategic real estate and full cooperation from Sudan. Sudan also has new lethal exports to pay its militant friend: murder and mayhem.

Some side effects of this new export business include the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the murders of more than 210 of the Algerian defense forces by Algerian fundamentalist groups and the continuing attacks on tourists and officials in Egypt. Although a Muslim country, Egypt is considered too soft on Israel and becoming too Westernized.

Since Sudan's independence in 1954, there has been a succession of military leaders and little relief from overwhelming poverty. In 1972, the Addis Ababa accord gave the south limited autonomy (an oxymoron) that ended the war against the Anyana guerrilla movement. But in the early 1980s, the SPLA came into being to fight the same battle. In 1984, Islamic law was introduced and the SPLA began fighting in earnest. The SPLA was supported by Cuba, Ethiopia, Libya and, strangely, by Israel. In 1985 Nimeiri's regime was overthrown in a coup and democratic elections were held. "Democracy" lasted until yet another coup in 1989 brought in the current ruler, General Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, in June of that year.

The Ethiopians have had their hands in the pie since November of 1987. Khartoum has also sought the assistance of Iran and Libya, including MiG-25s flown by Libyans. Even Iraq and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) lent a hand by flying bombing missions over the south.

Ethiopia hasn't meddled in Sudan's affairs since the ouster of Mengistu, allowing the SPLA to go on a roll. They almost took the city of Juba in the spring of 1989, when a factional group led by Garang's second in command, Riek Machar, created SPLA/United. The two southern factions began to battle each other. In 1993, the two southern SPLA groups called a truce after killing thousands of each other's members. The CIA is busy working to get the two sides to kiss and make up.

The Islamic fundamentalist military government of al-Bashir finally launched its long-awaited offensive against the rebel SPLA in February 1994 in an effort to end the 25-year civil war. Tens of thousands of refugees have fled to the Ugandan border.

Today, southern Sudan south of Malakal is controlled by the SPLA, with the exception of the city of Juba and a half-dozen Sudanese army strongholds. But the government positions are isolated and have been cut off from Khartoum. Under the constant psychological pressure of imminent attack, they man their trenches and watch their food and medical supplies shrink by the day. By containing the Sudanese army units with relatively small numbers of men, SPLA leader John Garang can marshall his forces and supplies for the eventual assaults on the strategic garrisons of Juba and Wau. He is in no rush to do so; the longer he waits, the weaker his forces become.

Garang's chunk of real estate in the south is rich in gold, hardwood, cotton, tea, coffee and tobacco. The fertility of the soil is such that even during the height of the war, farmers sympathetic to the SPLA were able to feed the guerrillas with surpluses of rice, corn, sorghum, goats and cattle.

Meanwhile, in the northeast, the National Democratic Alliance is threatening the crucial road and rail links to Port Sudan. In Sudan's central-eastern region, the NDA is within striking distance of the hydroelectric dam at Damazine, the source of 80 percent of Khartoum's power. The NIF has not publicly admitted to losing any ground.

Sudan was formerly perhaps the largest recipient of Western aid, but most of that was cut off in 1991, after the government supported Saddam Hussein's efforts in the Gulf War. The Sudanese people now only receive emergency aid from outside relief agencies. Aid workers experience delays regarding travel permits and visas, and sometimes are arrested.

Only Islamic agencies are allowed to operate in government-occupied areas of the south, since the government claims many Western groups are fronts for Christian missionary work or intelligence-gathering. Dawa Islamia, the largest Islamic aid agency, with close links to the government, withholds food from Christian and animist Southerners unless they convert to Islam.

Sudan has been expelled from the World Bank, suspended from the IMF (and likely to become the first country to be thrown out of the International Monetary Fund entirely since the fund was created) and kicked out of both the Arab Monetary Fund and Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. Sudanese experience 100 percent inflation per year.