Leaving the Waiting Room
September 25, 2010 2:28 PM   Subscribe

Sudan is at a crossroads. A referendum in three months will probably see South Sudan, a mainly Christian and animist region the size of Texas, to become an independent country. The Muslim north has greatly modernized but citizens believe they will take armed revenge on the south. After almost 50 years of fighting, the costs may be high.
posted by parmanparman (7 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
...and here we go again:

Although Sudan has been producer of oil and gas for a number of years it is considered to be vastly under-explored. The majority of proven reserves are located in the south in the Muglad and Melut basins. Due to civil conflict, oil exploration has been concentrated in the central and south-central regions of the country. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Sudan had proved oil reserves of 6.614 billion barrels at the end of 2007 or 0.53 % of the world's reserves.

The country is also rich in natural gas with reserves estimated at 3 trillion cubic feet (tcf). According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Sudan produced an average of 457 thousand barrels of crude oil per day in 2007, 0.57% of the world total and a change of 38 % compared to 2006.
posted by Postroad at 2:46 PM on September 25, 2010 [2 favorites]


This is a little trite, but I strongly believe basic comprehension of some geopolitical problems starts with an understanding of geographical scale. To that end, here is a map (scroll down a bit) of Sudan overlain on the eastern United States. Africa gets shrunk on most map projections and that can distort our sense of the internal dynamics and obstacles of the place. Sudan is a huge country.

Spoiler: It stretches from Florida to Wisconsin & from New York to Kansas
posted by Rumple at 3:39 PM on September 25, 2010 [14 favorites]


This is just bizarre, The first link goes to a Kickstarter project which claims that " the current country’s capital, Khartoum, is a haven of peace and stability where Sudanese from different regions, ethnicity and religion coexist."

I don't even know where to start with that. I don't if this is some kind of weird propaganda, just terribly misguided or what.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:43 PM on September 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 4:14 PM on September 25, 2010


Here's some self-links, but I hope they are useful:

EU says Sudan elections are flawed

Post election and pre-referendum, interview with Alain Délétroz , Vice President of the International Crisis Group

My job is to save lives
, interview with Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, after her visit to Sudan
posted by quarsan at 11:14 PM on September 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


Most southerners think they are marching relentlessly towards independence. But the view from Khartoum is, as ever, utterly different (The Economist).
posted by adamvasco at 12:49 AM on September 26, 2010


Rumple: or "everything west of Denver" close enough, for us West Coasters who have no practical grasp of East Coast scale.
posted by ctmf at 10:48 AM on September 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


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