Ten aid agencies have warned that a new war many be imminent in Sudan if the international community fails to act.

In 2005, a peace agreement ended over twenty years of civil war between the country's predominantly Muslim north and its animist and Christian south. The war cost an estimated two million lives. Crippling poverty, spiraling violence and mounting political tensions are now pushing the country toward a new breaking point.

The aid agencies particularly fear problems in April, when Sudan is due to hold its first multi-party elections in 24 years. These will be followed next year by a referendum in which southerners will vote on the secession and independence of the south.