Urgent push on Africa's oldest civil war

For more than 20 years, it's been one of the world's forgotten wars. Some 2 million people have died, yet it's received relatively scant global attention. But as the United Nations Security Council opens a historic meeting in Kenya tomorrow, the war between the north and south in Sudan - and efforts to halt it for good - takes center stage.

The main reason: Diplomats and experts see that stopping this conflict would not only end Africa's oldest civil war, but provide a template for dealing with Sudan's other main conflict, the one in its western Darfur region, where the US says genocide has occurred.

A north-south peace deal could even help salve an 18-year rebellion in neighboring Uganda, home to 1.6 million displaced civilians. In all more than 5 million displaced people could benefit if the UN, the US, and African nations can force peace.

But it's a mammoth task: For at least six months, the parties have been tantalizingly close, but unable - perhaps unwilling - to cinch a final deal. "Finally signing that agreement would represent a sense of momentum" that could benefit other conflicts, says Allan Rock, Canada's ambassador to the United Nations. And, he says, "It would show that the government of Sudan was actually doing something - and not just talking."

Fresh pressure to finalize the north-south deal comes as the international community is at loggerheads about how to proceed on Darfur, a region the size of Texas where some 70,000 civilians have been killed and 1.8 million people - out of a total of 3.5 million - have been displaced.

As the Security Council meets in Kenya's capital, Nairobi - only the fourth time the council has convened outside New York - tensions are showing over details of a resolution to be adopted this week. Nations like China, Russia, Pakistan, and Algeria apparently want to minimize references to violence in Darfur, while the US and Britain want to maximize them. Previous Security Council resolutions have threatened Sudan's government with sanctions if it doesn't make progress in halting violence in Darfur, but China says it will veto any implementation of those measures.

So, with the "stick" of UN sanctions still sheathed, the council - led by the US - is instead encouraging the European Union, the World Bank, and others to create a "carrot" big enough to lure Sudan's government across the finish line of a north-south deal. The promised package of debt relief and development aid could reach $100 million.

In theory, a final deal would do three key things to help Darfur.

• It would bring into Sudan's northern government the longtime southern rebel leader, John Garang. Because of his reported ties to rebels in Darfur, he might push for a more restrained response there. A rebellion against Khartoum began in Darfur in 2003, with the government allegedly retaliated by inciting Arab janjaweed militias to rape and kill Darfur civilians.

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