A more interesting question is how a country becomes a functional, stable democracy. Any answer must explain not only the Western countries but also India and Japan, which both have a vastly different history, culture, and (regarding India) economy.
Darfour is a bit of a problem.
I’m not sure that it is a straightforward as it sounds.
I heard a Sudanese minister on the BBC World Service saying (in excellent English) that you’ll find a Kalashnikov in every hut.
The South came to an agreement with the North as there is oil, and while they were scrapping nobody got rich - the helicopter crash nearly screwed things up, but fortunately it was a near miss.
In the West, my understanding is that there are three rebel groups, all keen on getting a slice of the oil revenue from the South. One is playing ball, but the other two are not.
The Jingaweed stuff strikes me as slightly spurious, as does the stuff about it being down to friction between nomads and farmers.
I have to confess that I’m slightly biased about Sudan, about 12 years ago I found myself on a flying business trip to Khartoum. The people we met spoke good English, were obviously well educated and despite their obsession with the Koran (which was boring) they struck me as pretty intelligent.
Interestingly in one meeting, I reckoned that the smartest guy there was a small black guy dressed in jeans who sat by my feet and made some very astute quiet obsevations to me.
The rest were dressed up to the nines in Arab robes.
I’ve a feeling that North Sudan might be fairly benign, and dealing with some slippery and unscrupulous rebels in the back woods. Since the West (USA/Europe) has chosen to demonize the North, we might be mistaking a police action for genocide.