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Join a panel of Sudanese experts for a discussion of current developments in Sudan’s recent conflict and challenges of democratic transformation and human rights.
In 2019, the Sudanese people deposed President Omar al Bashir thirty years after he took power in a military coup. The downfall of a regime accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the success of a grassroots pro-democracy movement, and the beginning of a democratic transition were all bright but short-lived moments in Sudan’s post-colonial history. On October 25, 2021, the military members of the transitional government staged a coup, arresting key civilian leaders and dissolving transitional institutions.
After much pressure from rounds of protests, the civilian and military stakeholders were days away from signing a political framework agreement to usher in a new transition to civilian democratic rule when fighting erupted on April 15, 2023. Although the belligerents, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), had previously worked together to overthrow the Bashir regime in 2019, and then again to stage a military coup in 2021, they could not agree on a plan to unify forces and share resources within a civilian political transition. In addition to destabilizing the Horn Region, conflict has had tremendous human rights implications including the killing of thousands of civilians, the destruction of critical infrastructure including the looting of hospitals, the onset of a refugee crisis, and more recently a massacre in Darfur evoking an investigation by the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor.
Organized by: Harvard Law School Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World and the Human Rights Program.