Making Sense of Sudan

Alex has summarized my book quite well, but with one major exception:  the central theme is the failure of the peace process to oversee the democratic transformation called for in the CPA’s Machakos Protocol, which I contend was the only

Read the rest of Democratization and the Failure of the Sudan Peace Process – By John Young »

John Young, The Fate of Sudan: The Origins and Consequences of a Flawed Peace Process, London, Zed Books, 2012. One of the truisms about Sudan is that the more you know about the country, the harder it is to write

Read the rest of REVIEW: The Fate of Sudan: The Origins and Consequences of a Flawed Peace Process – By Alex de Waal »

I would guess Omar al-Bashir gives more speeches than vice-president Ali Osman Taha, but I usually find the latter’s statements provide more insight into the thinking of the Khartoum regime.  Recently, I got to see Taha perform live in Doha:

Read the rest of Resurrecting the popular consultations: a way forward for South Kordofan and Blue Nile? – By Aly Verjee »

March 2013: another Addis negotiating marathon, another document heralded as the ‘breakthrough’ agreement between Sudan and South Sudan.  The 68-point implementation matrix (not counting sub-points), signed on March 12 by Idris Mohamed Abdel Gadar for Sudan and Pagan Amum for

Read the rest of Celebrating the bureaucratisation of peace: the Addis implementation matrix – By Aly Verjee »

Think of tropical hard wood – ebony, mahogany, teak – and you probably don’t think of South Sudan.  One of the country’s lesser-known natural resource superlatives is its relative abundance of forests.  Government figures suggest that there are almost 200,000km2

Read the rest of Is all well in the teak forests of South Sudan? – By Aly Verjee »

Over the last 50 years several interconnected crises (ecological, economic, and political) have been building up in Darfur, culminating with atrocities of killing, rape, and population displacement that have occurred over the last 10 years.  This has had dramatic socio-cultural

Read the rest of Darfur before: technologies, symbolism and multiple identities »

If you walk northwest for about two hours away from the county capital market in Warrap state and climb the leafless tree near the last trio of thatched huts, your mobile phone may flicker into signal.  For the last few

Read the rest of The Coming of Connectivity as the coming of the Town – By Naomi Pendle »

Following decades of civil war South Sudan achieved independence from Sudan in mid-2011 as the culmination of a long peace process. Both the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) and international donors consider a successful Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program

Read the rest of Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration in South Sudan: feasible under current conditions? – By Jairo Munive »

Sudan’s President, General Ahmed Al-Bashir and South Sudan’s President Silva Kiir met in Addis Ababa on 4th January for talks aimed at resolving their on-going conflict. But this has all happened before, and is likely to happen again, until they

Read the rest of The Future of Sudan: One State or Several? – By Seifulaziz Milas »

2013: a new year, but an old set of issues for Sudan and South Sudan.  Presidents al-Bashir and Kiir concluded the latest round of bilateral talks in Addis Ababa this weekend.  The statement of outcomes of the summit, issued by

Read the rest of Doing the Addis shuffle: Kiir and Bashir waltz again – By Aly Verjee »