Sudan – South

Arab/Muslim north vs African / Christian / traditional south.
 
Conflict arose on independence in 1956, prompted by southern fears of northern dominance, and a long history of separation during British colonial times. Although it can be seen as an African/Arab, Christian/Muslim conflict, the issue is really fuelled by atrocities and abuses of power connected with the shar’ia law of the fundamentalist Khartoum government, which affects some northern Muslims too. Also, many in the south follow native traditional faiths, and some prefer autonomy over independence.
 
Starting as a guerrilla war and developing into an armed liberation front, an unsatisfactory settlement came in 1972 mediated by the World Council of Churches. There was hiatus until 1983, when war broke out again over increasing islamicisation of the Khartoum government, and Khartoum’s aim to control the oil-rich Abyei region in the south. The southern SPLA, led by John Garang, was Marxist in leaning. Fierce warfare followed, and 2m died, with 4m displaced, by 2004.
 
Peace was achieved in Nairobi in 2005, with the south granted autonomy for six years, to be followed by a referendum in 2011 on independence. A coalition government in Khartoum failed after John Garang’s sudden (suspect) death, followed by southern withdrawal, especially over the presence of Khartoum troops in southern oilfields. Conflict dormant and unresolved – attention now falls on Darfur – with risk of breaking out again.
 

Links:

Survivors' Rights: Sudan
New Internationalist country profiles
Wikipedia: Sudan
Juba Post - Southern Sudan