Sudan and US Sanctions

The International Crisis Group (ICG) published on 29 September 2017 a commentary titled "A New Roadmap to Make U.S. Sudan Sanctions Relief Work."

The United States will decide by October 12 whether to lift permanently economic and trade sanctions that the Obama administration suspended in January 2017. The ICG concludes that lifting the sanctions is the wiser course. If the US declines to lift sanctions, it risks losing considerable future leverage with Sudan and reinforces Khartoum's belief that Washington cannot be relied upon to honor its commitments.

Conflict in Sudan's Blue Nile State

The International Crisis Group (ICG) published on 18 June 2013 an extensive report titled "Sudan's Spreading Conflict (II): War in Blue Nile."  It covers all aspects of the ongoing conflict in Sudan's Blue Nile State.

The ICG concludes that Blue Nile State has become a major battleground for the ideological competition between two opposed models: Khartoum's attempts at unifying and centralizing the country with a dominant Arab-Islamic identity, which South Sudan's separation is paradoxically reviving, versus the rebel SPLM/A's and now Sudan Revolutionary Front's agenda for a more inclusive and devolved Sudan.  Attempts to resolve Blue Nile's past and current conflicts reflect Sudan's existential dilemma as to how best it should define itself.

Humanitarian Access to Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a policy brief in September 2012 that called on the government of Sudan to permit humanitarian access to Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile States so that the international community could address the needs of hundreds of thousands of displaced persons.

Click here to read the policy brief.

Sudan: Refugees from Blue Nile State Speak Out

The Enough Project published a report in July 2012 that summarizes interviews with more than a dozen refugees at the Batil refugee camp in South Sudan who had recently fled from Blue Nile State in Sudan. Their accounts are not pretty and underscore the indiscriminate nature of the military action that Sudan is conducting in Blue Nile State.

Although not covered in this Enough Project report, it is well known that South Sudan is providing assistance to the SPLM-North organization, which is committed to overthrowing the Bashir government.

Click here to read the report.