Take a good long look at the map of the Arab world today; the chances are that it’s going to change drastically pretty soon. The news in 12 months’ time will be the most significant transformation among the 22 Arab nations since Palestine was wiped off the map in 1948. But unlike Palestine, Sudan will probably be split via the ballot box in January 2011. Although the expected schism in Sudan is short on symbolism – there is no Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth or Jericho – it is no less of a tragedy for Arabs to endure.
Sudan is unlike other Arab countries in many ways. Geographically, at 2.5 million square kilometres in area, it is the largest Arab or African country. It borders nine states including Ethiopia, the source of the vital Blue Nile River, which converges with the White Nile in Sudan and provides drinking water to a third of the Arab world’s population on its way to the Mediterranean.
