Focus on wider region: South Sudan for peace, but tensions remain high

This week's Wednesday regional update focuses on the political situation in southern Sudan. The Washington Post reports that South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, upon returning from visiting Washington, said this week that the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) would "never, ever take people to war again." He said that the party remains committed to the peace agreement signed in 2005. "However," Kiir said, "we reserve the right to self-defense should we be attacked." In recent months, tensions have been rising over the failed implementation of the peace agreement, especially the failed withdrawal of government troops from the oil-rich Abyei region. In a speech over the weekend, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir stoked the crisis by calling on militia forces that fought against the south and stand accused of human rights abuses in Darfur to "open training camps and to gather mujaheddin not for the sake of war but to be ready for anything." Regional leaders are already planning a summit to deal with these tensions, led by Kenyan envoy and former president Daniel arap Moi. The international community, which played a huge role in the signing of that agreement in 2005, has largely shifted its attention to Darfur. Yet, analysts describe the success of the north-south deal as crucial to any future settlement in Darfur, because it contains power-sharing models that could be replicated and because Darfur rebels see it as a litmus test of whether Khartoum can abide by its commitments. Read more at The Washington Post.