Background to a crisis: In Sudan, the stakes are high for all of Africa

The crisis ravaging Sudan making world news headlines has not emerged overnight, but is the continuation of a series of events that have destabilized the country over the past two years. To better understand it, UN News has summarized these events:

Since the ouster of former President Omar Hassan El-Bashir in April 2019, Sudan has undergone a turbulent transition to civilian rule. The civilian-led transitional government was established later that year, through a power-sharing agreement between military and civilian leaders, but was overthrown by a military coup in October 2021.

Since then, the country has been without a civilian-led government.

A subsequent political process jointly facilitated by the United Nations, the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) resulted in the signing of an agreement in December 2022 between the military and some key civilian political actors, boosting efforts to restore a democracy and civil government.

At the same time, the country’s economy has struggled and intercommunal clashes and other acts of armed violence have increased, with the civilian population paying the high price of many lives lost and homes destroyed in the Darfur region and Kordofan states. of the South and Blue Nile.

The continuing political crisis has exacerbated marginalization and political grievances, as well as unresolved conflicts over land ownership, all in Africa’s third-largest country of 48 million people.

complex challenges

The challenges facing Sudan are many, chief among them are pressing humanitarian and economic needs; the lack of security, justice and respect for human rights; and the urgency of achieving peace and progress in the democratic transition.

Despite these challenges, the political process continued to advance at the beginning of the year, following the signing of the framework agreement in December 2022, with efforts focused on resolving outstanding issues that would pave the way for a final political agreement.

As recently as March, the special representative of the General secretary for Sudan, Volker Perthes reported that Sudanese stakeholders were “closer than ever” to an agreement and a return to civilian rule.

Derailment of political talks

However, those hopes were dashed when fighting broke out on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by General Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who have left hundreds dead and thousands injured.

Even before the current fighting began, humanitarian needs in Sudan had reached record levels, with 15.8 million people – roughly a third of the total population – needing humanitarian assistance this year.

Ongoing hostilities have led to severe shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel, while the price of essential items, including transport, has skyrocketed.

The country is also home to more than one million refugees and asylum seekers from South Sudan, Eritrea, Syria, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, Chad and Yemen.

The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has called on the parties to immediately cease hostilities and allow all civilians to evacuate the areas affected by the fighting.

The UN in Sudan

The UN has been supporting the Sudanese democratic transition through the efforts of the UN Integrated Mission for Transition Assistance in Sudan (UNITAMS), a special political mission headed by Volker Perthes.

While hundreds of UN staff and their families have been temporarily relocated within Sudan or abroad, the Organization is committed to continuing its life-saving work by operating from inside and outside the country, and by focusing on priorities immediate calls for a sustained ceasefire with a monitoring mechanism, as well as a return to political negotiations and alleviation of human suffering.