Oil and Violence in Sudan

What can be done to resolve the seemingly endless conflict in Sudan ? A nation of 36 million people, wracked by conflict for 34 of the last 45 years, it has generated some 4 million displaced people during the course of its war. It is estimated that over two million Sudanese people have died as a result of fighting and related starvation and disease. According to the International Crisis Group, “there will always be abundant excuses to justify the continuing war in Sudan...However such justifications sound increasingly hollow in the face of decades of suffering...The time has come for a concerted international peace effort to break the logjam of violence in Sudan”. Indeed, this moment in time, amidst the reordering of global relations in the so-called War on Terror and Sudan’s historical harboring of its suspected architect, Osama Bin Laden, has created an opening for peacebuilding. The oil factor has assumed critical importance as of late, and as such has been unpacked here. Our analysis suggests that revenues from petroleum production are financing the conflict, that the oilfields have become strategic targets for rebels, and that various foreign interests – China and Malaysia, and multinational corporations from Europe, North America and Asia – have interests that are not necessarily aligned with the promotion of peace. Noting that unregulated environmental and social aspects of oil production also have significant impacts on the conflict dynamic in the country, it stresses that if the international community were sincere in seeking peace for Sudan, it would take multilateral measures to regulate petro-revenues in the region. 1 ICG God, Oil and Country: Changing the Logic of War in Sudan. International Crisis Group, January 2002:29. http://www.intl-crisisgroup.org/projects/showreport.cfm?reportid=534 2 ICG God, Oil and Country: Changing the Logic of War in Sudan. International Crisis Group, January 2002:219. http://www.intl-crisisgroup.org/projects/showreport.cfm?reportid=534