Thursday, July 31, 2025 10:00 am - 11:30 am ET - Zoom
Sudan’s Power Struggle: Humanitarian Catastrophe, External Influences, and Ways Forward
by Arab Center Washington DC
This webinar will also be livestreamed on our website
Welcoming Remarks
Tamara Kharroub - Deputy Executive Director and Senior Fellow, Arab Center Washington DC
Speakers
Nada Mustafa Ali - Assistant Professor, School for Global Inclusion and Social Development, University of Massachusetts Boston
Jehanne Henry - Human Rights Researcher and Sudan Specialist; Adjunct Lecturer, Columbia Law School
Khalid Mustafa Medani - Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies and Chair of the African Studies Program, McGill University
Alex de Waal - Executive Director of The World Peace Foundation, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University
Moderator
Elobaid A. Elobaid - Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University; Senior Advisor, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
About the Webinar
Sudan’s conflict, which erupted on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), has escalated into one of the world’s most severe humanitarian catastrophes, displacing over 10 million people. Entire cities such as Khartoum and El Junaynah have been devastated, with reports of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, rampant sexual violence, and the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure. As the RSF seeks to establish a rival state in the west and the SAF consolidates control in the east, the war increasingly risks formalizing a national split. Competing external interests have further complicated the landscape, while efforts by IGAD, the African Union, and the United States to broker a ceasefire or political settlement have thus far yielded little progress.
Arab Center Washington DC (ACW) and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University are organizing a critical webinar to explore the multifaceted crisis. The discussion will examine the internal political fragmentation driving the conflict, the regional and global powers shaping its course, the staggering humanitarian consequences, and the possibilities for peacemaking and recovery. What are the historical and political roots of the SAF-RSF rivalry? How have international arms flows, financial backing, and geopolitical competition fueled the war? What are the short- and long-term impacts on Sudan’s ethnic composition, civil society, and future governance? What are the dimensions and consequences of widespread sexual violence in the conflict, and how can survivors be protected and supported? How can Sudanese civilian actors be meaningfully included in peace processes? What role should the United States, the UN, and the African Union play in facilitating accountability and an inclusive transition? What mechanisms exist for humanitarian access, and how can the international community support a long-term reconstruction plan for Sudan beyond immediate aid?