SUDAN: Durable solutions elusive as southern IDPs return and ...

the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) was followed by heavy fighting and displacement
within a couple of days.
The next sections provide more detail about Sudan's conflicts in the south, the east and the west,
and about the patterns of displacement caused by these conflicts. The greater Khartoum area,
while not itself the scene of conflict, hosts a large population of IDPs from each of these areas. In
the thematic discussions that follow (on physical security, basic necessities of life, etc), separate
sections have been dedicated to the IDPs in Khartoum, as well as to Darfur, Southern Sudan, the
Three Areas and eastern Sudan.
Causes and Patterns of IDP Movements (by region)
Southern Sudan
In terms of the causes of displacement in Southern Sudan, a rough distinction can be made
between:
IDPs who were displaced by the war between the government in Khartoum and the SPLA;
IDPs who have been displaced more recently by inter-communal and inter-tribal conflicts;
IDPs in the south of Southern Sudan who have been displaced by attacks by the Ugandan Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA), mostly in Central and Western Equatoria;
IDPs from Darfur who have fled to Southern Sudan, mostly to Western and Northern Bahr el
Ghazal.
Furthermore, there is secondary displacement as a result of:
returning IDPs who fail to reintegrate in their places of origin, and who move back to their places
of displacement (often Khartoum) or to other places (mostly to towns in Southern Sudan);
demolitions of IDPs' homes by local authorities (mostly in Juba).
Causes of the conflict between the north and the south
In January 2005, after 22 years of civil war, the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan
People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The
immediate causes of the conflict between the north and the south included the imposition by the
Arab government in Khartoum of a radical Islamic and overtly racist political agenda on the
predominantly African population of the mostly animist and Christian south. However, as in
Sudan’s western and eastern regions, the underlying causes of the war lay in the concentration of
power and wealth among northern elites, and the political and economic marginalisation of the
south. Sudan’s resource-rich peripheral areas suffered from a lack of investment and
underdevelopment, while the country’s wealth benefited only the political centre.
The war had a devastating impact on the population of the south, and saw the repeated use of
famine as an instrument of war. The conflict caused the deaths of an estimated two million people
and the displacement of 4.5 million people (four million IDPs and half a million refugees).
The CPA created a new Government of National Unity (GNU) and the Autonomous Government
of Southern Sudan (GoSS). The CPA provides for a six-year interim period, during which the aim
is to make unity attractive by giving the south an equitable stake in the state. Should this fail, the
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