U.S. seeks to head off new Sudan conflict: "Sudan, torn by five decades of civil war that ended in a precarious 2005 peace deal, seems about to break up into two states in a January referendum on the independence of the south.
The United States is engaged in a major diplomatic effort to head off another conflict between the mainly Christian and animist south and the Muslim Arab-ruled north.
Regional stability is at grave risk if Sudan is indeed plunged back into conflict.
The country has been torn by turmoil since independence from Britain in 1956, when it plunged into civil war in which an estimated 5 million people died from the violence, famine or disease.
The critical element that will determine the fate of Africa's largest state is oil, a resource that is causing political and social upheaval across the continent as major strikes are being made from Angola to Uganda."
