Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

attracting reputable companies 337Norway and the United Kingdom have appointed their own specialenvoys, and France has announced plans to do so as well.Oil Development. The conflict began before the discovery of oilin commercial quantities. Oil is therefore not a prime cause of the conflict,but the future distribution of oil revenue is one of the main outstandingissues in the Inter-Governmental Authority on Developmentpeace negotiations.Oil exploration in Sudan began in the late 1950s, but the first significantdiscoveries were made by the U.S. company Chevron in southernSudan in the early 1980s. In 1984, soon after the resumption ofthe civil war, southern rebels kidnapped and killed three expatriateChevron employees. The civil war prevented development of the newlydiscovered fields, and Chevron pulled out in 1990.The most recent phase in the country’s petroleum developmentbegan in 1997 following the signing of the Khartoum Peace Agreementbetween the government and six ethnic Nuer rebel groups whohad broken away from the SPLA. The Khartoum agreement brought atemporary peace to the areas of Unity and Western Upper NileProvince immediately north and south of the Bahr-el-Ghazal River andmade it possible to resume oil exploration. The Khartoum agreementbrought no more than a temporary local peace, as some of the leaderswho signed the agreement defected back to the SPLA.Activism of Nongovernmental Organizations. Sudan attracts theattention of international nongovernmental organizations with a varietyof mandates, including the following:• Secular aid and relief agencies. Action Contre la Faim, CARE,German Agro-Aid, Médécins sans Frontières, Oxfam, Red Cross/RedCrescent, Save the Children Fund.• Church-related organizations. Christian Aid, Christian SolidarityInternational, DanChurch Aid, Norwegian Church Aid, Pax Christi,Samaritan’s Purse (United States), Sudan Focal Point (currently basedin South Africa), Tear Fund, World Vision.• Human rights. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,Justice Africa (antislavery organizations such as the American Anti-Slavery Group form an important subcategory of human rightsgroups).• Policy and conflict resolution. International Crisis Group.Sudan attracts attention first and foremost because of the humanitarianimpact of the war. The churches in the south of the country havebeen able to build links and publicize their concerns via Christian