According to one website, accommodations in Juba, the regional capital of Southern Sudan, are “not for the faint-hearted.” Of the eleven “hotels” in Juba listed by the site , most are tent camps. Some huts are available if you want to splurge. Most people will pray for a room at the Equatoria which actually boasts a restaurant.

Many lucky defense contractors will soon be learning first hand the pleasures of Juba because the State Department, effective January 17, has partially lifted the arms embargo against Sudan. Under the determination published today in the Federal Register, the State Department has authorized the provision of

non-lethal military equipment and related defense services (hereafter ‘‘assistance’’) to the Government of Southern Sudan for the purpose of constituting a professional military force. . . .

The Bush White House had, on October 13, 2006, exempted Southern Sudan from the sanctions that had been imposed on Sudan by President Clinton in 1997. Both today’s action and the October action were outgrowths of the December 31, 2004 peace accord between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the government of Sudan in Khartoum. Under the peace accords, Southern Sudan is granted autonomy for six years with a referendum on independence after that six year period. The Bush administration had held out the possibility of the lifting of sanctions as an inducement to the peace accords. The civil war between the SPLA was premised, at least in part, on the efforts of the Muslim government in Khartoum to impose sharia on the predominantly Christian south.

Probably the first Americans to arrive in Juba will be Blackwater USA, the Virginia-based private military corporation that, before today’s notice, already had a license pending to train a military force in Southern Sudan. My guess is that the Blackwater guys are used to living in tents.

Oh, and for everyone else headed for Juba, I hear the restaurant at the Equatoria is excellent. Try the Kajaik.^*

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^*A stew made of dried fish and sorghum porridge.

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