Renewed North-South Civil War in Sudan Slated for 2011

Take it to the bank.

Sudan already has huge problems. The lingering effects of genocide and insurgency in Darfur. Incursions by the batcrap crazy Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army into the south. Ethnic violence and raids in the south. Now, it look's like a renewed civil war between the northern Muslim-dominated government and breakaway Christian south is likely in the near future.

The festering turd of a government in Khartoum recently showed its hand by rounding up southern politicians from the southern SPLM (the political wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Army--the north's opponent in the civil war, and the junior partner in the current Sudanese ruling coalition) at an anti-government rally in the capital.

A referendum on creating an independent South Sudan is slated for the summer of 2011, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the government in Khartoum doesn't intend to hold anything resembling a fair election.

For its part, the south is also preparing for war. Satellite imagery and a freight manifest have demonstrated that a freighter captured by Somali pirates last fall and subsequently released was filled with tanks, RPGs, & AA guns headed for the Autonomous Government of South Sudan (via Kenya, who seems to be the GOSS's patron here).

War will (once again) hit Sudan before we know it. Some sort of diplomatic or even military intervention by the international community seems to be the only possible way to avoid this. Is that a good idea? I dunno...