I started the article on the attack, although by the time that I started it, the curfew was already in place in Khartoum.

What’s weird about this conflict is the following:

• The Darfur conflict has become (in fact, this is relatively old news) part of a wider, long-running bitchfest between Chad and Sudan.
• Both immediate sides in the Darfur conflict (the Sudanese government and the JEM) are Islamists from slightly different schools of thought.
• The Southern Sudan government, mostly run by Christians and pagans (as in traditional spirit-oriented/driven animists) is allying with the Sudanese government against JEM and allied Darfuri rebel groups.
• The JEM has identified the overthrow of the Bashir government in Khartoum – rather than simple secession of Darfur – as their main goal, hence the attack.

So what does this mean for Western concerns about Sudan? Is the rancor being raised because the government is Islamist or is it because of Sudan’s questionable partnership with the PRC?

Unfortunately, we can’t call these people by the phone and ask exactly what they’re intending to do with their future goals (nah, only approvaed “journalists” can do that), so that we in the West can do is stay where we are, mewl about a conflict that seems increasingly more like Alien vs. Predator, and wait and watch for someone to knock someone else over.