International community should threaten Sudan and South Sudan with sanctions - War would trigger humanitarian tragedy

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) warns emphatically of a looming humanitarian tragedy in East Africa if open war breaks out again between Sudan and South Sudan. "Roughly three million people in South Sudan and the border regions between the two states are currently dependent on food aid – another war would make their situation even more desperate," warned Ulrich Delius of the STP's Africa section on Friday in Göttingen. "That alone should be reason enough for the international community to make every effort at preventing open war. They should also go to the extreme of threatening the governments of Sudan and South Sudan with sanctions if they do not return to the negotiating table immediately."

Meager harvests have left some 2.7 million people in South Sudan dependent on international humanitarian aid. Furthermore, there are 245,000 refugees who need supplies in the Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile conflict region in the areas near the borders between Sudan and South Sudan.

"With more than 2.5 million dead in South Sudan due to mass flight, displacement and genocide in the war against the North that has been going on since 1955, it is clear that there is no alternative to peaceful negotiation of the remaining disputes between Sudan and South Sudan," said Delius. As both governments are apparently prepared to plunge their war-weary populations into renewed war, international pressure on both nations must be increased.

It might well be possible to get South Sudan, in particular, to turn around at the last minute, because sanctions such as cutting off development and reconstruction aid would be a tough blow for this young state. Currently they are slated to receive 200 million euros in development aid between 2011 and 2013 from the European Union alone, and the US has promised even more aid for reconstruction. On Thursday South Sudan president Salva Kiir refused to withdraw his troops from occupied Heglig, and rejected all interference from the international community.