SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Council for Foreign Relations - Credibility in Short Supply in Sudan

11/1/2023: Council for Foreign Relations - Credibility in Short Supply in Sudan, by Michelle Gavin

Council for Foreign Relations (CFR) question promises from junta leaders to give up political power as part of the framework agreement, citing its 2021 coup during the post-2019 transitional.

CFR warn that extended “transitional” periods that empower the military “give them ample opportunities to engineer the kind of instability that they can later argue requires their continued control”.

CFR also highlight rehabilitation efforts by Sudan’s junta leaders - Rapid Support Forces commander-in-chief Himedti and army chief Abdulfattah al-Burhan – with Himedti arranging “to have himself named person of the year by Sudan’s National Human Rights Commission” and al-Burhan “playing regional statesman”.  

Thus, CFR conclude “the only thing worse than a sham process that continues to empower the junta would be a sham warmly endorsed” by the US, described as the “global power most vocal about shoring up democracy and pushing back against authoritarianism.”

SUDAN POLITICAL ALERT: Doctors Without Borders – Sudan: People fleeing violence in Ethiopia face new challenges in search of shelter

11/1/2021: Doctors Without Borders – Sudan: People fleeing violence in Ethiopia face new challenges in search of shelter

 Doctors Without Borders/Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) call for rapid assistance to address the needs of Tigrayan refugees —“particularly in advance of the rainy season, which will make this area of Sudan very difficult to access.”

MSF state: “it is extremely important that the government of Sudan, the UN, donors, and NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] do everything in their power to scale up; coordination by UNHCR [the UN Refugee Agency] and the Sudanese COR [Commissioner for Refugees] needs to be improved; more funding from donors is urgently needed; and permission to import supplies and start activities must happen in days, instead of weeks.” 

Among the biggest challenges noted by MSF are access to enough medical supplies, the shortage of experienced medical staff, alongside logistical and financial issues caused by the pandemic, fuel shortages and inflation in Sudan.