El-Hussaq Partitioned
Lands Split between Nexus and Samchorage

Before President Aladdin of El-Hussaq met his doom at the hands of a Black Mercedes 300, his last action in office was to increase the tax rate from 7% to 15%. The event triggered a quiet but widespread resistance to his rule, culminating in his assassination on March 30, 2001. When the new ruler, a face from the past, President El-Cid II returned to office, no intention was made to repeal the tax hike imposed by his predecessor. Subsequently, the trickle of emigrants out of El-Hussaq brought about as a result of harsh economic conditions became a wild wave as people gathered their few belongings and fled the country for a better life elsewhere.

The extent of the exodus slowly became apparent as shops closed, schools were left empty, and the ring of slum fires around the Ring of Fire were put out. By the time the Royal Tax Collection Agency began to take revenue from the people, there were only 4 citizens left in El-Hussaq. With only a desperate population of roughly 6,500 left after the devastating War of 2K1, an exodus of citizens left the nation a ghosttown. Only President El-Cid II and an official from the Tax Collection Agency remained in the Prime while two farmers laid scattered in the Colonies. All four individuals were conscripts in the El-Hussaqi army.

Declaring that El-Hussaq had violated the Riksholm Treaty by having 100% militarization through the conscripts, members of the Platinum Nexus, notably the Triumviral and Consular powers, then approved a pre-emptive strike on the El-Hussaqi Republic. Analysts say the move was made in part by concern over the massive El-Hussaqi militarization program which was to begin sometime this month. Previous El-Hussaqi aggression against Natharctica and Dickens Peninsula made many nations nervous, including those of the Nexus. On April 2, 2001, the Republic of Gorditas, Republic of Lindsholm, Republic of Pauldelphia, and the Great Republic of the Marcusburg Empire launched a multinational strike force against the attenuated El-Hussaqi Republic.

100 troops were each sent into El-Hussaqi lands into Terra Nova. These territories were successfully conquered without firing a single shot. Lands in the Prime and the territory once known as Noe were taken with 2500 Nexus troops easily, as all resistance surrendered on the moment Nexus troops crossed the fiery border or landed troops on El-Hussaqi soil. Afterwards, the Nexus notified the Phoenix Confederacy through Samchorage that lands in Terra Nova would be ceded to that organization to do as it willed. The President of Samchorage then laid claim to all lands in Terra Nova and sent 500 conscripts, who entered the land right after Nexus troops safety left the occupied zones. In the meantime, the Nexus drained the El-Hussaqi treasury and placed it in trust in the World Bank.

President El-Cid II had been left alone during the invasion in 'Conquestidor Quarters' and only found out about the invasion when no one answered his requests and demands within the Presidential Palace. El-Cid II was given free latitude of movement and he immediately contacted the President of Samchorage and the Ethnarch of Rattanjeetland. Through pressure from the Ethnarch, the President yielded and returned all El-Hussaqi land under Samchoragean jurisdiction on April 3, 2001.

In the meantime, negotiations being held at the Presidential Palace in El-Hussaq proper will determine the fate of the Nexus-occupied El-Hussaqi lands. News leaks from within the meetings indicate that negotiations are going well for a change. Capitals around the Mapp are reeling from the shock of the events of the past month and many are divisive in terms of opinion.