AP Photo
President Obama announced Monday that his administration will shift policies on Sudan, moving from isolation to engagement. While the government will renew tough sanctions against the regime of Omar al Bashir, Obama said that "If the government of Sudan acts to improve the situation on the ground and to advance peace, there will be incentives; if it does not, then there will be increased pressure imposed by the United States and the international community.” He is hoping to end both the genocide in Darfur and to repair relations between the country’s Muslim north and its Christian and animus south, the latter of which will hold a referendum on secession in 2011. On Monday, peacekeepers in Darfur reported an unusual increase in activities by the Sudanese government and Darfurian rebels.