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FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
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INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KHARTOUM 000861 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL SOCI SCUL ECON ETRD KEAI UG SU
SUBJECT: THE ANGLOPHONES: SUDAN,S NEIGHBORS, PART ONE OF 
FOUR 
 
REF: KHARTOUM 256 
 
¶1. (SBU) Introduction:  Sudan, the largest and arguably the 
most ethnically complex country in Africa, has nine 
neighbors, tied with the Democratic Republic of the  Congo 
for the most in Africa.  This is the first of a series of 
four cables describing the bilateral relationship between 
Sudan and each adjacent state in terms of history, social, 
and cultural ties; migration patterns; economic bonds; and 
political relations.  The series will run as follows: 
 
-- Sudan and the Anglophones; 
-- Sudan and the Arab states; 
-- Sudan and the Highland states; and 
-- Sudan and the Francophones. 
 
¶2. (U) Summary:  The relationship between Sudan and its 
Anglophone neighbors, Uganda and Kenya, has been 
characterized by close historical, cultural, and economic 
ties to the south and separation and disputes with the north. 
 Now that the 20-year civil war has ended, both Kenya and 
Uganda are important economic partners, and their support is 
crucial to the success of Southern Sudan, whether or not it 
decides to separate in 2011.  Currently, the main political 
dispute with Kenya is the status of the Ilemi Triangle border 
region, although Sudan seems content to continue to ignore 
the issue.  In Uganda, the important strategic relationships 
center around the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which both 
countries are working to eliminate (reftel), and the use of 
the Nile waters.  End summary. 
 
------- 
History 
------- 
 
¶2. (U) The history of Southern Sudan is very closely tied to 
both Uganda and Kenya.  During the colonial era, the British 
even considered splitting Southern Sudan and joining it with 
one or both of its other colonies to form a greater 
Equatoria.  Egypt, the minority partner in the condominium of 
colonization, however, sought to maintain Sudan's limited 
control of its southern region to ensure the continued 
supplying of Egyptian slave markets. 
 
¶3. (U) During the recent civil war, Uganda and Kenya's close 
relationship with the south led to tensions with the Muslim 
northern governments, and both countries initially supported 
the southern rebels.  During the 1990s, Kenya's shift to a 
more neutral stance allowed it to play a decisive role as the 
mediator in the Inter-Governmental Agency for Development 
(IGAD) talks that eventually led to peace.  The Ugandans, 
however, remained at odds with the northern government until 
the final stages of the civil war (reftel). 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
Cultural and Social Ties, Migratory Patterns 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) Southern Sudan enjoys extremely close cultural and 
social ties with both Uganda and Kenya, and the same ethnic 
groups live on all sides of the borders.  Before the arrival 
of the colonial powers, there were no distinctions among 
Northern Uganda, Northern Kenya, and Southern Sudan, and 
people moved freely between what are now the three countries. 
 
¶5. (U) By contrast, there were and continue to be limited 
interactions with the people of Northern Sudan.  The Sudd, 
the world's largest swamp, and the desert beyond, has kept 
the people of Uganda and Kenya, as well as the Southern 
Sudanese, distinct and separate from Northern Sudanese 
culture. 
 
¶6. (U) Within the last three months, both Uganda and Kenya 
have signed tripartite agreements with Sudan and the UNHCR to 
repatriate refugees.  Kenya has about 70,000 of the 550,000 
Southern Sudanese refugees, while Uganda hosts over 200,000 
Southern Sudanese, the Sudan's largest Southern refugee 
population.  The repatriation process has already begun, 
although it has been slowed by continued insecurity, a 
cholera outbreak, and early rains. 
 
----------------------- 
Economic and Trade Ties 
----------------------- 
 
¶7. (U) Trade between Sudan and Kenya is poised to accelerate 
rapidly over the next year.  During the month of March, a 
number of agreements were put in place to open up trade 
between the two countries.  Within the general framework of 
Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), of 
which both countries are members, Sudan has signed a new 
 
KHARTOUM 00000861  002 OF 003 
 
 
trade bilateral agreement, established a preferential tariff 
schedule for Kenyan products, and helped negotiate the 
establishment of an Arabic training center in Nairobi run by 
the NGO Bread of Life. 
 
¶8.  (U) Most of the investment activity with Kenya is focused 
on the south.  In January, Southern Sudan sent a delegation 
from the Southern Sudan Chamber of Commerce, Industry and 
Agriculture to Nairobi to attract investors, and in March 
Kenya hosted a Southern Sudan Investment and Development 
Conference.  Trade of basic goods with the south has 
increased with the opening of the road between the Kenyan 
border town of Lokichoggio and Torit.  This trade should 
continue to grow once the road is open all the way to Juba. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) is also 
keen to establish a more extensive trading infrastructure 
that will reduce the South's dependence on the north.  The 
biggest project in this regard is a proposal for an oil 
pipeline to be constructed from the southern oil fields to 
the Kenyan port of Lamu, north of Mombassa.  Unconcerned with 
the mountainous terrain between these points, the Kenya 
Pipeline Corporation has announced it will fast-track this 
project, giving Kenya a steady flow of oil and allowing 
Southern Sudan to export oil without going through the north. 
 It is unclear how the national (northern) government would 
react to this project if it materializes.  There has also 
been talk of new roads and a rail system linking Kenya with 
the south.  The GOSS has recently shown its appreciation of 
Kenya's longstanding support by donating USD 1 million for 
famine relief. 
 
¶10. (U) Trade ties with Uganda remains focused on basic 
manufactured goods and there is currently little movement to 
expand this trade to higher-priced commodities.  However, 
Uganda remains the most important supplier to the markets of 
Southern Sudan and the opening of the road to Uganda led to a 
drastic drop in prices for Juba and the rest of Central and 
Western Equatoria.  While small in terms of overall Sudanese 
imports, these products are critical for the economic growth 
in the South.  Larger investment projects from the Ugandans 
have been discouraged by a tariff regime that is currently, 
in practice, erratic. 
 
------------------- 
Political Relations 
------------------- 
 
¶11. (U) During much of the Sudanese civil war, Nairobi served 
as the de facto headquarters of the rebel Sudanese People's 
Liberation Movement (SPLM), which initially put a strain on 
Sudanese-Kenyan relations.  However, once then-Kenyan 
President Daniel Arap Moi took a leadership role in the 
IGAD-sponsored peace process in 1996, Kenya was seen by the 
Sudanese as moving to a more neutral position.  While the 
Kenyan government continued to allow the SPLM to have offices 
in Nairobi, the Sudanese government demanded that Kenya 
maintain a strictly neutral posture to ensure its continued 
credibility as a mediator. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) The biggest outstanding political dispute between 
Sudan and Kenya is the border demarcation in an area known as 
the Ilemi triangle, a legacy of the colonial era.  Kenya has 
exercised effective control of the Ilemi area, in Sudan's 
extreme southeast corner, throughout its history.  However, 
at the behest of their Egyptian partners in Sudan, the 
British signed a treaty between their two colonies in 1907 
that ceded a portion of the area to grant Sudanese access to 
the important dry season watering grounds around Lake 
Turkana.  Moi made moves to integrate the triangle into Kenya 
when he took power in 1978, including changing maps and 
establishing an outpost.  Sudan never paid much attention to 
these moves and later, according to former State Minister for 
Foreign Affairs Gabriel Rorig, the Sudanese government was 
content to ignore these incursions for the greater good of 
the peace talks.  Now that the peace talks have concluded, 
the Sudanese have yet to make any move to revisit the issue. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) The recent political relationship between the 
Sudan and Uganda has been dominated by their support for each 
other's rebel movements.  Because of the close historical 
ties between the people of Northern Uganda and Southern 
Sudan, the Ugandan government provided open military support 
to the SPLA throughout the civil war.  Sudan countered this 
by providing support to the LRA.  Sudan's open support of the 
LRA ended in 2003 with an agreement, still in force, that 
allowed Ugandan troops to operate in Sudan when hunting LRA 
forces.  This detente has held and Uganda has since stopped 
openly opposing Sudan in international organizations.  (For a 
more detailed discussion of this relationship, see reftel). 
 
 
KHARTOUM 00000861  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶14. (U) The Nile also forms a major strategic link between 
Sudan and Uganda.  As the home to the White Nile's most 
important source, Uganda's water management practices have a 
great effect on Sudan.  Within the context of the Nile Basin 
Initiative, discussions over water management are expected to 
heat up in the coming months. 
STEINFELD