Sudan - from Promise to Peril: Origins and Prospects for a Failed Political Transition

Sudan is in the grip of escalating armed conflict and on teetering on the edge of civil war. Two rival armed forces, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are fighting in the capital, Khartoum and in regional cities and towns across the country. Both are heavily armed and have regional backers. The crisis has its origins in Sudan’s failed internationally-backed political transition since the revolutionary events that led to the ousting of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. In his remarks, Professor Srinivasan discusses how did the RSF, and its entrepreneurial leader Mohamed "Hemedti" Hamdan Dagalo, come to play a central role in Sudanese politics? How does this conflict play out regionally with Egypt, Libya, Chad, Ethiopia, and Gulf countries having clear interest and what role did western and international peacemaking play in precipitating Sudan’s violent unravelling? About the Speaker: Sharath Srinivasan is David and Elaine Potter Associate Professor at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Politics and International Studies, a Fellow of King’s College Cambridge, and Co-Director of the University’s Centre of Governance & Human Rights (CGHR). He lived and worked in Sudan in the early 2000s and has been researching on the region since then. His book, When Peace Kills Politics: International Intervention and Unending Wars in the Sudans, was published in 2021 (Hurst/OUP). He also co-edited Making and Breaking Peace in Sudan and South Sudan: The Comprehensive Peace Agreement and Beyond (British Academy/OUP, 2020). Sharath is a Fellow of the Rift Valley Institute and a Trustee of the British Institute in Eastern Africa. Alongside longstanding work on Sudan, his current research focuses on communication technology and politics and peaceful assembly. He co-edited Publics in Africa in a Digital Age (Routledge, 2021) and is co-founder of non-profit digital social research spinout, Africa’s Voices (www.africasvoices.org).