THE PACT raises hopes that violence in the African nation's Darfur region will abate. Capping days of intense negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria, involving Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Robert Zoellick and other African leaders, the warring parties accepted the deal after the inclusion of security guarantees for the black African rebels and requirements that the Sudanese government disarm Arab militias.
Whether the deal will hold remains to be seen. Both the rebels and the government have repeatedly failed to live up to past agreements. Since 2003, the brutal conflict between government-backed Arab militias -- mainly Muslim -- and black rebel groups -- also predominantly Muslim -- has caught millions of unarmed civilians in the crossfire.
They have had their homes torched by marauding camel-back riders, women raped, and their water rendered poisonous from corpses dumped into wells. By some estimates, as many as 400,000 people have been killed, and more than two million people have fled. As the fighting has persisted, international political and business interests have converged -- and clashed -- in Sudan.
China is one of Sudan's largest arms suppliers, European countries have stakes in Sudanese oil exploration, and the U.S. is trying to prevent the country from falling into the hands of Islamic extremists. Here's a closer look at the Sudan conflict: Historical Context:
For more than two decades, the Muslim-led Sudan government fought the predominantly Christian rebels from the oil-rich south of Sudan. In September 2001, Mr. Bush -- motivated in part by evangelical Christians who were calling for an end to religious persecution in Sudan -- appointed former Sen. John Danforth to usher in a peace agreement. In January last year, a peace accord brought an end to the North-South clash.
But just as that conflict began to unwind, rebel groups in Darfur -- mostly Muslim black Africans -- became encouraged by the success of the southern rebels. Like many living in poor, rural communities on Sudan's periphery, the people of Darfur had long felt marginalized by the central government. In February 2003, they attacked a Sudanese military installation, triggering the ethnic conflict.
The Terrorist Connection: Sudan backed Iraq in its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and sheltered Osama bin Laden starting in the early 1990s. In 1996, bin Laden left the country under pressure from the U.S., and in 1997 the U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Sudan in response to its "support for international terrorism."
After the bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in August 1998, the U.S. launched retaliatory cruise-missile strikes against Khartoum. The strikes hit the El Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries factory, which U.S. officials claimed was manufacturing chemical weapons, though that's never been proved. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Sudan has provided intelligence to the U.S. Still, the country is on the U.S. government's list of states that sponsor terrorism.
In his latest audio broadcast last month on Arab television, Osama bin Laden urged his followers to go to Sudan to fight against Western influences. Sudanese Oil: Sudan is the third-largest oil producing nation in Africa, behind Nigeria and Angola. It produces about 360,000 barrels of oil a day, more than 70% of Sudan's total exports. Some analysts believe the Darfur crisis results in part from the government's desire to forcibly remove people from areas that are ripe for oil prospecting. Sudan-China Relations: Exports from Sudan to China in 2005 grew by more than 50% from 2004 to $2.6 billion, according to the World Bank.
Roughly 90% of those exports are attributable to oil. Last year, China purchased half of Sudan's oil exports. China's interests in the region have frustrated the international community's attempts to stop the conflict. As one of five permanent members on the Security Council, China has threatened to veto any United Nations economic or military sanctions against Sudan.
Lauren Etter POINTS OF VIEW
"The violence in Darfur region is clearly genocide. The human cost is beyond calculation." -- President George W. Bush
"These are all lies. I tell you these are lies. There is no mass killing." -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, responding to a reporter's question about reports of evacuations, extreme poverty, mass killings and gang rapes in Darfur
"As in the case of many developing countries, southern Sudan and Sudan as a whole has the mixed blessing of oil. It is a possible source of resources and revenue, but it is also a danger because it runs the risk of the cancer of corruption." -- Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick
"Muslims and their followers in Sudan and in the Arab peninsula should get ready to conduct a long war against these crusader thugs in western Sudan . . . Our goal is clear, and that is to defend Sudan, its territory and people." -- Osama bin Laden in his broadcast last month on Al-Jazeera