A recent government-backed offensive by tribal militias against communities in oil-producing regions of southern Sudan has raised serious questions about Khartoum’s commitment to ending the 20-year-old civil war between the Arab- and Muslim-dominated regime and the mainly African, non-Muslim population of the south, according to international observers. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) is calling on supporters of the peace talks–including the United States, Britain, and Norway–to pay closer attention to pro-government militias which carried out the attacks and are being used by Khartoum to enhance its control of the Western Upper Nile oil fields that bring revenues of some US$500 million a year from European, Asian, and Canadian companies operating there. Full Story