Far in the waste Sudan : on assignement in Africa

In 2000, with controversy raging over the presence in Sudan of Talisman Energy, Canada's largest independent oil and gas producer, Ottawa decided to open a post in Khartoum. Nicholas Coghlan was recalled from assignment in Colombia to set up and run Canada's first diplomatic post in the largest country in Africa. "In diplomatic circles, you cry when you hear you've been posted to Sudan," says Coghlan. "But you cry even more when you leave." Far in the Waste Sudan weaves together a personal and political account of Coghlan's three-year appointment. In 2000, with controversy raging over the presence in Sudan of Talisman Energy, Canada's largest independent oil and gas producer, Ottawa decided to open a post in Khartoum. Nicholas Coghlan was recalled from assignment in Colombia to set up and run Canada's first diplomatic post in the largest country in Africa."In diplomatic circles, you cry when you hear you've been posted to Sudan," says Coghlan. "But you cry even more when you leave." Far in the Waste Sudan weaves together a personal and political account of Coghlan's three-year odyssey through one of Africa's most inaccessible countries. Contents Introduction 1 Khartoum 2 In the Oilfields: Fuelling the Fire? 3 Operation Lifeline Sudan 4 Victims 5 Northern Lights: Conversations with the Elite 6 The Borderline: Government-Held South Sudan 7 Behind Rebel Lines 8 Fallen Empires 9 Southern Voices 10 The Contested Areas 11 The Wild West 12 The East 13 Leaving Khartoum Epilogue: Sunset over Fashoda Acknowledgments Chronology of Modern Sudanese History Acronyms Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y Oil rich and on the divide between Africa and the Middle East, Sudan is one of Africa's most inaccessible countries. Coghlan takes the reader from Khartoum, former home of Carlos the Jackal and Osama bin-Laden, to the Nubian desert to the rebel-controlled swamps and jungle lowlands of Equatoria. He takes us with him to the mountain ranges of Darfur and the forgotten national park of Dinder and on a fifty-year old steel sailing dinghy racing on the Blue Nile. "Nicholas Coghlan was the first Canadian diplomat to be posted in Khartoum and he offers an insider's view of the war-torn country at a turning point in its history. Far in the waste Sudan also explores the moral and ethical dilemmas of delivering aid to a country at war with itself."--Résumé de l'éditeur "Nicholas Coghlan was the first Canadian diplomat to be posted in Khartoum and he offers an insider's view of the war-torn country at a turning point in its history. Far in the waste Sudan also explores the moral and ethical dilemmas of delivering aid to a country at war with itself."--Jacket 'Far in the Waste Sudan', by the first Canadian diplomat ever to be posted to Khartoum, offers a unique and privileged view of Sudan at an epochal moment in its history. CLIMBING HIGH OVER THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA, the plane soon finds the Nile and settles onto its course south.