In the seventh in the series of “IntelBriefs” on African security issues being produced by the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center in partnership with the Soufan Group, an international strategic consultancy, Ansari Center Deputy Director Bronwyn Bruton provides an update on the border dispute between Sudan and South Sudan.
She notes that despite the escalation of violence that drew Khartoum and Juba to the edge of war in May 2012, the immediate concern troubling the North and the South is not the threat of violence between the two governments, but instability resulting from economic crisis and the escalation of long-standing domestic conflicts. Bruton argues that an agreement on oil transit fees will ease tensions between and improve the grim situations in the two Sudans, but as the latest talks in Addis Ababa have shown no progress and China remains on the sidelines, there is little hope for improvement on the horizon.