A two-month-old ceasefire in Sudan's central Nuba Mountains area is a blessing for those in the affected region, but might be escalating fighting in Sudan's civil war elsewhere. Diplomats, oil executives and a government official said that while residents in the Nuba Mountains were overjoyed by the ceasefire, fighting had increased in strategic oil-producing areas since the deal was forged with U.S. assistance in January.

Some said the limited cessation of hostilities might have allowed the Government and the rebels to re-deploy troops in violation of the ceasefire agreement, or simply reallocate financial and other resources to more strategic areas. Rebels have been fighting for greater autonomy for the mostly animist and Christian South from the mostly Islamic, Arab North since 1983. The war has claimed some two million lives.

Mutrif Siddig, the Foreign Ministry under-secretary who headed Sudan's delegation at the ceasefire talks in Switzerland in January, acknowledged last Sunday that fighting had increased and said there was a danger that forces could be redeployed if a ceasefire had only limited geographic reach. "It is true... In the Unity State — that is where we produce oil in the South — hostilities are escalating," he said. "A limited ceasefire might make the two parties concentrate on other areas and shift resources and forces there.