Sudan's Forces for Freedom and Change and the Transitional Military Council recently signed a power-sharing accord, but the agreement has yet to be formally implemented. Susan Stigant explains what’s holding up implementation and how the agreement addresses transitional justice.
A U.S.-led peace initiative to end Sudan’s brutal civil war took place in Geneva over the last two weeks. But despite invitations and extensive international pressure, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) declined to send a delegation to Switzerland altogether, while the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) sent a delegation.
The Red Sea is in crisis. At the center of the storm are Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have unleashed a wave of attacks on ships traversing one of the world’s most pivotal maritime straits, putatively in support of Hamas’s war against Israel. The Houthi gambit in the Red Sea is imposing serious costs on global trade, as did the problem of Somali piracy, which reached its peak in 2010. The United States and some of its allies have stepped in to militarily suppress the threat, bombing Houthi positions inside Yemen. But although this episode is illustrative of the difficulties of Red Sea security, the crisis extends far beyond the trouble emanating from Yemen.
Since Sudan’s civil war erupted 15 months ago, civilians have disproportionately borne the brunt of the fighting. The African Union recently referred to the crisis in Sudan as an “unprecedented catastrophic humanitarian situation,” marked by the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises and significant civilian casualties.
More than a year into Sudan’s civil war, the country is facing the “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis” as international aid struggles to find its way to those in need, says USIP’s Susan Stigant: “At this point, unfortunately, all of the efforts collectively are not meeting the needs” of Sudanese citizens.