BOR, Sudan — The nascent government of southern Sudan, a key U.S. ally in the volatile nation, is threatened by severe problems including severe cash shortages and growing ethnic tensions spawned by a national ruling party determined to see the south fail, southern officials say.
The future of Sudan as a whole is closely tied to what happens in this oil-rich region, where the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, or SPLM, fought a brutal, 21-year civil war against the government rooted in claims of discrimination by a northern, Arab elite. More than 2 million southerners died in the conflict, and millions more were displaced.
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, April 25, 2009