Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have played a significant role in some of the most destructive civil wars of the developing world. From Colombia, Sierra Leone, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Azerbaijan, to Myanmar, MNC engagement has aggravated conflict and fed pervasive corruption through the extraction of lucrative natural resources, such as oil and natural gas, timber, diamonds, and other precious minerals. The case of Sudan is yet another example where economic development spurred on by MNC activity has had deadly consequences, benefiting but a few in an impoverished population. For the past fifty years, international oil companies have explored the burning coasts and diverse terrain of the Sudan for precious “black gold” amidst harrowing civil war. Mired in conflict since its independence, it comes as no surprise that MNCs would become embroiled in the dynamics of Sudan’s second civil war between the central government in Khartoum and the insurgent Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) from the South. Oilfields were heatedly contested areas of strategic control between warring factions and witness to horrendous human rights violations against civilian populations. The activities of MNCs eventually provided Khartoum with a source of revenue to strengthen its brutal military machine. As a result, fervent international human rights advocacy moved to clear the indirect, but nonetheless detrimental, corporate influence on an already devastating civil war
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 22:58:08 +0000
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