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.”