The war in Sudan will soon be in its eighth month and prospects for a military ceasefire or a political agreement to end the war appear crushingly bleak in the near term. Internationally-mediated talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia have demonstrated yet again that both sides in Sudan’s conflict believe that the threats posed to them are existential and that a military solution is only way forward. Tragically, this leaves Sudanese civilians caught in the crossfire.
More than one million people have fled to neighboring countries while more than seven million Sudanese are internally displaced. Health care in the country has collapsed and the global humanitarian response is only one-quarter funded. Amidst this ever-worsening scenario, and in the absence of a coordinated international response, Sudanese are themselves stepping up to respond from the frontlines. Recent political talks in Addis Ababa have given hope for the establishment of a civilian alternative to military rule; while Sudanese-organized humanitarian talks in Cairo have offered solutions for reaching Sudanese besieged population. But with fighting set to expand to the Sudan’s still-quiet eastern states and the western region of Darfur experiencing even more extreme levels of atrocities, the time for the international community has grown short if we hope to avoid the tragic collapse of Africa’s third largest country.
This event is made possible through general funding to the CSIS Africa Program.
