Making Sense of the Sudans is the leading site for critical online debate and discussion about both Sudans. Started by Alex de Waal in 2007, MSS has become an institution for those wishing to understand the country and the many issues raised by its politics, humanitarian crises and international engagement. Including cutting edge debate, book reviews and commentaries on current issues, the blog seeks to place the Sudans in a wider context, and to highlight many of the internationally important issues identifiable by seasoned observer and occasional watcher alike. Editor: James Copnall. Contact: editor.msos@gmail.com
UN peacekeepers in South Sudan: protecting some of the people some of the time
Posted on by Lucy Hovil
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While the UN’s actions are appreciated by the thousands seeking refuge in protected sites, there are millions more outside who are suffering. The UN peacekeeping mission has simply not done enough. Two years ago, war broke out in South Sudan. What started off as a political power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his former vice president Riek Machar was quickly manipulated into ethnically-aligned violence that spread with extraordinary speed and intensity. Civilians quickly became the prime target. As violence escalated, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) took the unprecedented decision to open its gates to thousands of civilians fleeing violence. While the opening of a number of Protection of Civilian (PoC) sites across the country did not prevent mass violence, there is no doubt that it reduced the number of people killed or injured. As one man living in a PoC site in Juba said: “If it was not because of peacekeepers, all of us would have been killed.” The speed with which the decision was taken to open the gates was crucial in saving lives. It was also a direct response to the shadow that fell over peacekeeping missions during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, […]
Professor Akolda Man Tier: in Memoriam
Posted on by Nasredeen Abdulbari
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Professor Akolda Man Tier was a rare scholar and man of integrity, commitment and honesty who dedicated his life to the study of law. One of the greatest honors I have had in my life was the opportunity to be a student and colleague of Professor Akolda Man Tier, who passed away last week in Kampala. No words would suffice to express the deep sorrow I feel because of the demise of this prolific and great scholar. Nor would this short piece be sufficient to encompass the indelible impact of such a distinguished scholar as Professor Tier – whose whole life deserves to be written about – on his students and colleagues. Professor Tier, who was born in what is now Lakes State, South Sudan, to a Dinka family, completed his secondary education in South Sudan and joined the University of Khartoum’s Faculty of Law, from which he graduated in 1968. After further studies at Cambridge University, he returned to Sudan with an LLB and a PhD and was promoted to a lecturer position at the University of Khartoum. Despite the numerous opportunities available to him, Professor Tier spent more than three decades teaching at the Faculty of Law, with […]
The Sudanese rebels’ national agenda is causing local harm
Posted on by Hafiz Ismail Mohamed
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SPLM-North’s insistence on negotiating with the government about national issues only – rather than giving priority to South Kordofan and Blue Nile – is hurting the people of the Two Areas. After yet more missed deadlines, Sudan is gearing up for talks again. The coming rounds consist of two tracks. The first is between the government of Sudan (GoS) and the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) rebel alliance. The agenda will be limited to the terms of a cessation of hostility agreement and arrangements for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and administrative arrangements for conflict areas. The second is a preparatory meeting for the National Dialogue, which will include the armed movements, the National Umma Party (NUP), the Sudan Consensus Forces (SCF) opposition alliance and the governing National Congress Party (NCP), to discuss the arrangements needed to create a conducive environment to pave the way for a genuine national dialogue to start inside Sudan. However, recent developments will cast long shadows on the negotiations, including the following: The dispute over the chairmanship of the SRF, its impact on the Sudan Call Alliance with the unarmed opposition and the joint negotiation positions of the armed movements, as well as the disagreement over how Sudanese civil […]
The Sudan Revolutionary Front: comrades in squabble
Posted on by Magdi el Gizouli
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The rebel alliance fighting against President Omar al Bashir is looking less united by the day. For better or worse, the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), the alliance of insurgents against the government of President Bashir, is now reduced to its individual constituents: the four main armed movements, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement-North (SPLA/M-N), the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the two Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) factions led by Minni Minawi and Abd al-Wahid al-Nur, besides the three token formations in their alliance, al-Tom Hajo and friends from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Nasr al-Din al-Hadi and friends from the National Umma Party (NUP) and Zeinab Kabbashi’s United People’s Front for Liberation and Justice (although it is not clear whether she still actually leads the group). After a drawn out meeting in Paris from 13 to 17 October, the head of the SRF’s media sector, al-Tom Hajo, declared in a public statement that the JEM leader Jibreel Ibrahim had replaced the SPLA/M-N chief, Malik Agar, as chairman of the alliance. Agar responded immediately with a statement affirming his continued leadership and declaring that the SRF is now effectively two blocs: on one side the Darfur movements and their new ally […]
Trouble on the White Nile: What the barge kidnapping reveals about the UN in South Sudan
Posted on by Jason Patinkin
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When UN peacekeepers were detained crossing the river in a tense area, the response from UNMISS was slow and uncertain. Last Monday, three barges hired by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) left a UN base in Malakal, Upper Nile state, on the government-controlled east side of the river. The barges carried fuel meant for an UNMISS base in Renk further north and on board were a group of international peacekeepers and a South Sudanese crew. When the barges reached Kaka, an outpost on the rebel-controlled West Bank, 100 heavily armed men under the command of Major General Johnson Olony stopped the boats, detained the crew, disarmed the peacekeepers, and offloaded the cargo of 55,000 litres of fuel, according to the UN. Olony’s spokesperson claimed the men on board included SPLA and National Security Services agents, and said they would treat the captives “like criminals” to let the world know that UNMISS was colluding with the government. He indicated the collusion was local – a deal with the SPLA and lower-level UN folks. The hostages feared for their lives and may have been directly threatened. The SPLA denied the presence of any of their men on the boat, saying they […]
Sudan’s international capital diplomacy
Posted on by Magdi el Gizouli
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Khartoum calculates that it can price up political accommodation with armed groups to normalisation of relations with Washington. But is the US interested? September was a busy month in the chronicle of Sudan’s war and peace bargains. President Omar al-Bashir, wishing to catch a bigger bait than his rather undemanding partners in the government-led national dialogue, offered insurgents in South Kordofan, the Blue Nile and Darfur a two-month ceasefire and blanket pardon to enable willing leaders to join the National Dialogue conference scheduled to begin on 10 October. Armed movements allied in the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) made a more generous offer back – a six-month ceasefire – on the condition that the government participate in a pre-dialogue meeting under the auspices of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa. The announcement was made a day after leaders of the SRF held talks with Western envoys to Sudan led by Donald Booth, the US envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, in Paris. The promises of ceasefire have remained just that – promises – intended as they are to engage a foreign diplomatic audience in a game of bids. But they nevertheless indicate a readiness for compromise in a situation where the warring parties are as […]
Splitting South Sudan into 28 states: right move, wrong time?
Posted on by Brian Adeba
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South Sudan’s fragile peace deal is already under heavy pressure. President Kiir’s decision to carve the country into 28 new states puts it under even more. President Salva Kiir’s decision, announced last Friday, to create 28 states in South Sudan, up from the current ten, risks adding another destabilising element to the peace pact signed between the government and the SPLM-In Opposition (SPLM_IO). The peace deal is already under extreme pressure with both parties having violated the ceasefire. But according to opposition leader Riek Machar, the decree to split the country into smaller pieces is retrogressive and risks undermining the deal further. Machar was quick to denounce the decision, calling it “a clear message to the world that President Kiir is not committed to peace.” Splitting the country The proposed move by Kiir is ostensibly an answer to the long-stated objective of “taking towns to the villages”, a code word for spurring grassroots development through the devolution of power via a decentralised governance structure. The devolution of power, or federalism, has long been a popular demand in South Sudan, both before and after gaining independence in 2011. In the early 1950s, when a nascent Southern Sudanese political identity was born, members of the […]
It’s time for the US to press the reset button on Sudan
Posted on by Ahmed Badawi
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US sanctions have not worked and the factors that led to the embargo have changed. A rapprochement would be in both US and Sudanese interests. The sun may have started to set on his tenure in office, but US President Barack Obama seems to have no intention of slipping into cruise control with regards to foreign policy. Against difficult odds, he recently mended fences with Cuba and Iran, two of the country’s longest-standing foes. It may be tough for him to repeat the trick with North Korea given the Asian country’s apparent unwillingness to abandon its nuclear arsenal. But there is another international adversary with which the US could seek a relationship reboot: Sudan. A regime led by President Omar al-Bashir is instinctively odious to many, but a lengthy US economic blockade has – like in Cuba – failed to achieve its laudable, if lofty, stated goal of hastening a peaceful, democratic state in Sudan. Meanwhile the key factors that led successive US administrations to dial up sanctions from 1993 to 2006 have changed fundamentally too. South Sudan seceded peacefully in 2011. And while Darfur is still a hot mess, wi