Tensions between north and south Sudan are on the rise as talks between the two parties faltered this week.  The failure of the talks comes in the wake of a United Nations Security Council visit to the region and in advance of a vote on southern independence to be held in early January 2011.

The independence referendum, to be held on January 9, 2011, will be the culmination of a peace agreement the parties reached in 2005 that stopped a decades-long civil war in the country.  The south will be deciding whether or not to secede from Sudan.  The referendum will also decide the fate of the oil-rich province of Abyei, which will either become a part of the north or the south.

The current talks faltered due to disagreements on the issue of voter eligibility in the Abyei referendum.  More discussion is expected to take place near the end of October in Ethiopia.

Diplomats are concerned that the breakdown of talks and the impending referendum could lead to more violence in the region.

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