Heading towards independence

摘要

Sudan is unaccustomed to good news. But on December 13th the ruling party of the north, the National Congress Party (NCP), and the former rebels who control the south agreed on the terms for a referendum in 2011 over southern independence. The question now is whether that just sets up the next fight.rnA peace agreement in 2005 ended a conflict between the north and the south that had endured for the best part of 50 years and claimed over 2m lives. But the deal had come under increasing strain in the past few years, not least over the exact terms of its most important provision, the referendum in the south on whether it wants to secede. Now, however, the NCP and the south's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) have at last worked out most of the details. Fears of more fighting between the two sides have thus receded-if only a bit.