Virtually all observers at the beginning of 2001 were pessimistic regarding the likelihood of an end to the protracted civil war afflicting the Sudan since 1955. The pessimism changed to cautious optimism when serious dialogue resumed in late 2001 between the military regime in Khartoum, hereafter the government of Sudan, or GOS, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The dialogue, mediated by Kenya and under the auspices of the regional body known as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), led to the Machakos Protocol of July 20, 2002. The protocol laid the groundwork for a peace agreement that was to be negotiated in the following years, and most specifically called for a six-year interim period ending with a referendum in southern Sudan where secession of the South would be an option.