How Micro Level Conflicts Fuel National and Regional Wars in East Africa: A Case Study of Sudan

On January 9th 2005 through the facilitation of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Government of Sudan (GoS) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM/A), the two main parties to North South conflict in Sudan, signed a 'comprehensive peace agreement' purposing to end the longest running Civil War in Africa. The conflict in Sudan is multi dimensional and has operated at several different levels; this is particularly evident in the South where the Civil War landscape has been superimposed with intra regional and localized micro conflicts. These south-south conflicts may well constitute the greatest challenge to a sustainable peace in southern Sudan. This paper will examine the linkages between the different levels of conflict, and aims to present the argument that micro conflicts are not by-products of the Civil War but provide the kindling that fuels regional and national conflict, and indeed that the roots of the Civil War can be traced back to local conflicts. If this is the case it will have far reaching implications on the post conflict peace building environment, and on the IGAD peace process as a whole, which has already received criticism for not addressing regional and micro conflict at least at the political level (Sudan Mirror 2004)