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 »

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 »

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 »

Crisis in the Horn of Africa: politics, piracy and the threat of terror, Peter Woodward Peter Woodward will be known to many as a long-time historian of the Horn of Africa and particularly Sudan, where his Sudan, 1898-1989: the unstable

Read the rest of Crisis and Development in the Horn of Africa: two new books on a volatile region – By Magnus Taylor »

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 »

There are no final or totally verifiable figures for the numbers of elephants slaughtered for their ivory in 2012. However, reports from Cameroon, DR Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic suggest a massive and continuing rise in killings

Read the rest of The Ivory Wars: how poaching in Central Africa fuels the LRA and janjaweed – By Keith Somerville »

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 »

The maxim that the test of any agreement is in its implementation is familiar to those who follow Sudanese politics, even from a distance.  This article reviews the latest agreements reached between Sudan and South Sudan on September 27 in

Read the rest of Sudan: Reviewing the Addis Ababa peace agreements 2012 (part I) – By Aly Verjee »

Divorce with kids involved is often a painful affair. But once the recriminations have been cast and the tears have dried, the two protagonists, it’s hoped, will work together for a common good: providing their children – and themselves –

Read the rest of Sudan and South Sudan: a civilised divorce – By Ahmed Badawi »