In September 2019, Sudan’s recently appointed Minister of Finance, Ibrahim Elbadawi, announced a nine-month economic reform programme. The government is seeking to improve provision of basic commodities, especially fuel and bread, initially using foreign assistance, including World Bank credit, with the aim of starting to fade out governmental subsidies and foreign aid after nine months.

South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, visited Khartoum in late June 2019 where he met with senior political and security figures in the new Sudanese government. The removal of Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, replaced by a Transitional Military Council (TMC), and latterly a 3-year transitional military-civilian government, has resulted in a reworking of relations between the neighbouring states,…

ثورة العيش

This briefing unpacks the connected political and economic crisis that reached a climax in early 2019 through the contrasting but connected worlds of Sudan’s bread and sorghum eaters. Its conclusion presents the limited options available to the as yet unelected technocratic government.

On 11 April 2019, leaders of the military, security and militia formations he relied upon to maintain his rule overthrew him in a palace coup after months of mass protests and civil unrest across the country. Witness to his abasement were thousands of people who amassed around the army headquarters in Khartoum to demand his ouster. Sudan’s season of revolt had claimed its highest prize.

The importance of remittances to the household economy across Somalia is well-recognized. What is less well understood is the relationship between remittances and the relative vulnerability of certain communities, particularly to drought and food insecurity. This briefing outlines the key features and the marked variations of the remittance landscape in Somalia. It also analyses how…

The Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) signed on 12 September 2018, not only allows for a new government and security arrangements, it also provides for two new commissions to decide the number of internal states and their boundaries.

For over two decades Ethiopia’s political federation has been organized around the principle of ‘democratic centralism’. This philosophy also lies at the heart of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition, and its centralized decision-making culture. Until recently, EPRDF policies were formulated through a top-down process rather than on the basis of local…

This Q&A is an explainer on the rapid political changes that have taken place in Sudan over the last month. All 4 contributors are close collaborators with the Rift Valley Institute. Questions were posed by Magnus Taylor, RVI’s Senior Publications Manager. Alden Young and Naomi Pendle are co-directors of RVI’s Sudan and South Sudan field course, held this year in Ethiopia. For more…

Contrary to what is often assumed, insecurity in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is not limited to rural areas marked by the presence of armed groups and military operations. Cities and towns in the region are subject to rampant criminality, including armed robbery, murders, burglary and kidnappings for ransom. Other, less visible, forms of everyday urban insecurity also…