john garang's death creates a big question-mark over the future of sudan. garang was one of the main leaders of the christian rebellion in southern sudan and, pursuant to the peace accord, recently became vice president of sudan.
garang's war was the original horror story coming out of sudan--the seemingly endless war between the muslim northerners and the christian/animist southerners. one of the few bright spots of having a president beholden to the christian right is that the civil war actually got the attention it deserved and a peace agreement between the rebels and central government seemed to be taking hold. as darfur, the new tragedy on the sudanese block, descended into genocide and horror, the north-south civil war actually got better. but it was easy not to notice. darfur was and is too big of a deal and in no time sucked up the u.s. media's paltry quota of african news coverage.
with garang's death, the civil war in the south could come roaring back again. there are already riots in khartoum. and with darfur showing no sign of winding down either, sudan could be burdened with two world-class tragedies at once. i wonder how many people will even notice.
