After a year of fighting that has all but destroyed the country, outsiders either ignore or sponsor the rival military factions, It was a cruelly surreal moment after a year of what has become the world s most destructive war, with over 8 million people driven from their homes and 17m now facing the threat of a military-induced famine. Commander of the Sudan Armed Forces General Abdel Fattah al Burhan announced on Eid el Fitr (10 April in Sudan) that his aim was not to return to any civilian regime like the radical reforming one of 2019-2021 or the oppressive rule of Gen Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir s National Islamic Front (then National Congress Party) from 1989 to 2019.
Obsessed by Gaza and Ukraine, delegates couldn’t agree on a path to restart ceasefire negotiations, On 15 April, a year after war between the rival military factions broke out in Sudan, France s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Union hosted an international conference in Paris raising over €2 billon (US$2.1bn) in aid pledges. It also called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and for the rival factions to stop blocking and stealing humanitarian aid. Questions remain about how many of those pledges will be honoured to assist a conflict that the west and the international system have largely ignored.
Civil war and regional instability could drive refugees to EU, warns UN chief, The refugee crisis in Sudan and wider regional instability could prompt tens thousands of people to move north, trying to cross into Europe, Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, has warned.
A civilian initiative to bring the warring factions to the negotiating table may be the last defence against a war that would shatter the country, Two opportunities to broker a ceasefire in Sudan s ruinous civil war have been arbitrarily waived aside in the new year by the warring generals cohorts, raising concerns of a still deadlier escalation (AC Vol 64 No 25).
Sudan s walk out from IGAD is latest sign of deepening rivalries in the Horn of Africa, The growing fissures among East Africa s leaders over the civil war in Sudan were on show at last week s Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in Kampala, and the decision by the military regime in Khartoum to suspend its membership of the bloc undermines hopes of IGAD brokering peace talks.