With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

South Sudan hints at renewal of war if independence vote is delayed

A top leader in Southern Sudan warned Friday that the Sudanese government risks the collapse of a peace accord that ended a war that killed more than 2 million people if it stalls an independence referendum for the south scheduled for January.

Southern Sudan is eagerly awaiting the vote, which could turn the arid region into the world's newest nation and split Africa's largest country in two. A 2005 peace agreement that ended four decades of on-and-off war between Sudan's north and south called for the referendum for southern Sudanese. But negotiations have barely begun and tensions are rising.

It took months of talks between the north and south before the commission charged with organizing the vote was in place. Now it's deadlocked over the appointment of the secretary general of the commission....

Read entire article at AP