Conflict and Instability in Sudan and the Wider Horn of Africa

ALC Research Seminar Event (HYBRID):
Conflict and Instability in Sudan and the Wider Horn of Africa: What Options for Peace-making?

The African Leadership Centre (ALC) and The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) would like to invite you to our upcoming ALC Research seminar series event, “Conflict and Instability in Sudan and the Wider Horn of Africa: What Options for Peace-making? ” It will be held on Thursday, 28 November 2024, from 18:30 UK Time.

Abstract:

In this seminar, experienced policy actors and peace practitioners will share their insights about prospects for peace, leadership processes, and the domestic and international factors that influence the longstanding crisis of war in Sudan. The prolongation and stalemate characterising the war in Sudan calls for renewed conversations about what is possible and the way forward, making it important to bring practitioners into academic spaces. Policymakers and practitioners who have been involved in the day-to-day peacebuilding process in Sudan share their insights, peacebuilding efforts and perspectives of the war.

The war in Sudan cannot be understood in isolation due to the wider insecurities in the Horn of Africa – Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and South Sudan. In the case of Ethiopia, despite the signing of a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front in 2022, Ethiopia continues to experience armed insurgencies and instability from conflicts in the Oromia, Amhara and the Beni Shengul Gumuz regions. In the Horn, there are contestations over access and control of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and this has led to considerable volatility and socio-political instability in more recent years.

In Sudan, as a result of the ongoing war (since April 2022) between the rival factions, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the country is currently experiencing one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes on earth today. It is characterized by support from countries that have vested interests in the future of Sudan and the wider Horn.

The war has been initiated and sustained with the backing of powerful states who sponsor either side of the two warring parties.  It has defied several peacemaking interventions, ranging from efforts to initiate political dialogue by the UN, the AU, IGAD, and the USA and others. The armed hostilities continue unabated, with thirteen million Sudanese people fleeing from their homes and close to sixteen million people requiring urgent humanitarian aid. Despite the catastrophic situation, Sudanese Civil Society and local communities have continued to play a major role in organising to stop the conflict and call for the restoration of peace and democratic transition in the country. Local mutual aid groups have also played key roles in delivering aid to communities in a worsening humanitarian situation.

This seminar delves into the complexities of Sudan’s war to offer unique and practical insights and recommendations around leadership and actors of war, potential pathways to peace and political settlement, alongside ensuing constraints and opportunities.

Moderators:

• Babatunde Tolu Afolabi, Africa (Anglophone & Lusophone) Regional Director at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD)

• Shuvai Nyoni, Executive Director of the African Leadership Centre (ALC)

Speakers:

• Haile Menkerios, Senior Advisor at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) and former Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the African Union

• Asma Ahmed, Sudan Country representative at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD)

• Mesganaw Mulugeta, Programme manager for Ethiopia and South Sudan at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD)

This event is organised in collaboration with the Africa-Europe Cluster of Research Excellence on Interdisciplinary Peace.