The horrific fighting in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, has grabbed news headlines since violence broke out on 15 April 2023. This violence shattered Khartoum’s reputation as an island of stability, with many noting that Khartoum had not been attacked in such a manner since the 19th century. The novelty of the attacks on Khartoum have however removed attention from the pervasive violence and…

This paper focuses on the origins and the political and military objectives of the two main internal actors – the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — in Sudan’s ongoing conflict.

In 2020, RVI secured a grant from the European Union with a key objective to strengthen women’s research in South Sudan. The Project will increase the capacity, experience and the institutional power of women researchers, which will in turn increase and diversify knowledge production on developmental challenges, widening the scope for gender-sensitive development and good governance, and…

In Sudan, the revolutionary upsurge of 2018/2019 signalled the implosion of the country’s postcolonial political order. The political parties of old have seen their social bases wither away and their ideological hold over the Sudanese people corrode under the sustained pressure of a hyper-extractive political economy. The so-called ‘transitional period’ that followed the overthrow of President…

The African Red Sea Region does not produce enough food to feed its own population. Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somaliland (Somalia) are each reliant on imports to make up for domestic production shortfalls. This presents unresolved challenges to the food security of the region. The regional food system is currently in crisis because it is reliant on the international grain trade.…

Urban workers and students led Sudan’s 2019 revolution, which forced the security forces of former president Omar al-Bashir to depose their patron in April 2019. The protestors were backed by trade unions, civil activists, technocrats with PhDs, old political parties, and business leaders, all grouped around the Forces of Freedom and Change – an opposition coalition formed in January 2019, as…

This XCEPT briefing considers the changing political situation in Sudan with a particular focus on the future of the Juba Peace Agreement (JPA) and the evolving political and security dynamics in the east of the country.

War, Migration and Work examines the history of labour migration and labour relations in present day South Sudan's Baher El-Ghazal borderlands with Darfur and Kordofan (regions of present day Sudan).