Speakers
Niemat Ahmadi
Founder and President
Darfur Women Action Group
Nada Mustafa Ali
Senior Lecturer of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, College of Liberal Arts
University of Massachusetts Boston
Alan Boswell
Project Director for the Horn of Africa
International Crisis Group
Kholood Khair
Founding Manager
Confluence Advisory
Khalid Mustafa Medani
Chair of the African Studies Program and Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Islamic Studies Institute
McGill University
Samah Salman
Business Executive, Sudan Private Sector; President of USESA (US-Educated Sudanese Association)
Moderator
About the Webinar
On June 1, 2023, Arab Center Washington DC (ACW) organized a webinar titled, “The Conflict in Sudan: Will the Humanitarian Ceasefire Translate to a Political Resolution?” Panelists were Niemat Ahmadi, Founder and President of Darfur Women Action Group; Nada Mustafa Ali, Senior Lecturer of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Massachusetts Boston; Alan Boswell, Project Director for the Horn of Africa at International Crisis Group; Kholood Khair, Founding Manager of Confluence Advisory; Khalid Mustafa Medani, Chair of the African Studies Program and Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Islamic Studies Institute at McGill University; and Samah Salman, Business Executive in the Sudan Private Sector and President of USESA (US-Educated Sudanese Association). Imad K. Harb, Director of Research and Analysis at ACW, moderated the event.
Khalid Mustafa Medani discussed the roots of the current conflict, looking back to landmark events such as the coup of 1989 and the War in Darfur that began in 2003. Medani also detailed several scenarios for how the fight will play out.
Nada Mustafa Ali spoke about different ways of framing the conflict, emphasized the importance of ensuring the meaningful involvement of women in finding a resolution to the fighting, and stressed the necessity of ending the war and aiding the Sudanese people who are suffering because of the conflict.
Samah Salman explained the backgrounds of the two generals behind the fighting, the specifics of the country’s humanitarian crisis, and the war’s spillover effects in neighboring countries, and also offered some policy recommendations for ending the conflict.
Alan Boswell focused on both regional and international elements of the conflict, including the two generals’ long relationship, the role of Gulf Arab states and other regional actors, and the significance of the ongoing Yemen Civil War, which saw Sudanese soldiers as participants.
Niemat Ahmadi detailed the history and background of the current conflict, focusing on the War in Darfur, the rise of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and international involvement with the regime of deposed former President Omar al-Bashir.
Kholood Khair emphasized the need for a critical assessment of the conflict in order to find a way out of the fighting, and criticized traditional mediation efforts that merely legitimize the parties to a given conflict. Khair also spoke of the significance of the war that both sides in the conflict are also waging on Sudanese civil society and its political aspirations.
Featured image credit: Shutterstock/Abd Almohimen Sayed
