Sudan

On December 16, Sudanese political parties, armed movements, civil society organisations, and prominent political figures signed a nine-point political roadmap in Nairobi, presenting it as a civilian-led initiative aimed at ending Sudan’s war and restoring a democratic transition.

Framed as an antiwar, pro-peace platform, it seeks to position civilians as a “third pole” against the two military actors in Sudan’s conflict: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Its authors say it represents an attempt to reclaim political agency for civilians after months of marginalisation by armed actors and foreign mediators, even though the declaration does not outline any concrete steps towards military reform.

The roadmap reignited longstanding debates within Sudanese political and civic circles about representation, legitimacy, and the persistent dominance of elite-driven civilian politics.

The roadmap

The Nairobi declaration emerged after a statement released by the Quad – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States – in September.

The Quad statement called for an immediate three-month truce to lead to a permanent ceasefire, humanitarian access to help civilians, and the creation of a political process for a civilian transition.

It also emphasised excluding remnants of former President Omar al-Bashir’s regime and reforming Sudan’s security forces under civilian oversight, all points that the Nairobi declaration echoed.

The Nairobi signatories included the National Umma Party, the Sudanese Congress Party, civil society organisations – including the Darfur Lawyers Association and the Coordination of Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees – and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) led by Abdelwahid al-Nur.

Former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who led Sudan’s transitional civilian government from al-Bashir’s overthrow in 2019 until the October 2021 military coup by the SAF and the RSF working in concert, also signed the declaration.

It was likewise endorsed by al-Nur, longtime leader of the SLM-AW armed group that controls Jebel Marra in Darfur and has historically rejected what he describes as “elite-driven” political settlements.

Falling short

Sudanese researcher Hamid Khalafallah told Al Jazeera that despite the intent to present a civilian leadership, the declaration falls short of reflecting Sudan’s broader civic movement.

The Nairobi coalition, he argued, mirrors earlier civilian formations that failed to connect with Sudanese citizens, particularly those most affected by the war.

“It’s in many ways a reproduction of former groups that have … struggled to represent the Sudanese people,” he said. “It’s still very much an elite group that does politics in the same way they always have.”

Although resistance committees – neighbourhood groups that emerged from Sudan’s protest movement and helped topple al-Bashir in 2019 – were referenced in the declaration, no committees formally endorsed or signed it.

Drafts were reportedly shared with some grassroots groups, but the process advanced without waiting for collective deliberation – reinforcing concerns that civilians on the ground remain politically instrumentalised rather than empowered.

While al-Nur’s participation was hailed by some as a breakthrough, Khalafallah questioned the underlying motivation, arguing that his inclusion was intended to counterbalance rival military-aligned forces rather than transform civilian politics.

Before the Nairobi declaration, there were three main civilian coalitions in Sudan, each aligned with a warring party or accused of such an alliance.

Tasis is the coalition of political parties and armed movements that was founded in February 2025, before forming the RSF’s parallel government in July 2025, while the Democratic Bloc is a grouping of parties and armed groups aligned with the SAF.

Finally comes Hamdok’s Sumoud, comprising political parties and civil society organisations and accused by SAF of supporting the RSF.

Europe’s one-track civilian strategy

European officials have distanced themselves from the Nairobi initiative.

A senior European Union diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera that Brussels does not see the Nairobi roadmap as the foundation for a unified civilian process.

“We would like to see only one civilian process, that’s why we are helping the African Union [AU],” the source said. “Everything else is a distraction, like this Nairobi one.”

According to the EU official, the priority is not multiplying civilian platforms but consolidating them under a single credible framework, led by the AU and broadly accepted by Sudanese society.

“Our aim is to create a credible third pole – versus RSF and SAF,” the source said. “An inclusive one, supported by most Sudanese citizens.”

The EU plans to build a broad coalition that can take the lead after the Quad’s humanitarian truce and ceasefire proposals are accepted by the SAF and the RSF, including reforms placing security forces under civilian-led oversight.

The EU’s language reflects growing frustration among international actors with Sudan’s fragmented civilian landscape, while insisting that abandoning it would legitimise military rule by default.

“Of course, we are not naive that civilians will take over tomorrow,” the source said. “But we have to stand for our values.”

The EU official was blunt in assessing the conduct of Sudan’s warring parties, rejecting narratives that frame either side as a governing authority.

“I would not call what RSF does in Darfur ‘governing’, SAF is a bit better – but not much,” the source said.

“Look at the oil deal they did,” the official added. “Money is important; people are not.”

They referred to the latest agreement between the SAF and the RSF – under South Sudanese mediation – that both would withdraw from the Heglig oil facility, with South Sudanese troops deployed to secure the refinery following SAF’s pullout and the RSF’s capture of the site.

Warring parties as spoilers?

US-Africa policy expert Cameron Hudson told Al Jazeera that the Nairobi declaration appears to mimic the Quad’s recent statement, effectively presenting to the international community a roadmap that aligns with pre-existing objectives to gain Quad support.

“My sense is that the Nairobi declaration reverse engineers what the Quad has said,” Hudson said, suggesting that the initiative is designed more to attract international endorsement than to build genuine domestic consensus.

Hudson warned that this approach mishandles the sequencing of Sudan’s political transition, “prematurely” linking ceasefire efforts with reforms of the army or other political changes, arguing that these should remain on separate tracks until violence subsides.

“If what the Quad wants is an unconditional ceasefire, then it needs to pursue that, not create opportunities to trade a ceasefire for political assurances during a transition,” he said.

“For that reason, it is premature to be talking about reforming the army or other political reforms. These should remain in separate tracks for now.”

The tension is stark. The Quad and the European Union increasingly state that neither the SAF nor the RSF should have a political future and that remnants of the Bashir regime must be excluded entirely.

Yet both armed forces remain indispensable to any cessation of hostilities, creating an unresolved contradiction at the heart of international strategy.

Eight people also injured in fighting with ‘terrorists’ in disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan.

At least six Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in a “terrorist” attack on a United Nations base in Abyei, a disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan, the Bangladesh army said.

The attack on Saturday also injured another eight people, the army stated.

“The situation in the area is still unstable and clashes with terrorists are ongoing,” the army said in a statement, adding that the authorities were working to provide medical treatment and rescue operations for those injured.

There was no immediate comment from the UN mission.

The attack comes just a month after the United Nations Security Council voted to renew a UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), the peacekeeping mission in the oil-rich disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan, for another year.

Bangladesh is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping missions, and its troops have long been deployed in Abyei, a volatile region disputed between Sudan and South Sudan.

UNISFA’s peacekeeping mission was first deployed in 2011.

The 4,000 police and soldiers of UNISFA are tasked with protecting civilians in the region plagued by frequent armed clashes.

The Abyei region is split between two different groups with different loyalties.

The Ngok Dinka tribe have strong ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties to the Dinka of South Sudan, while the Misseriya are a nomadic Arab tribe with links to Sudan.

Abyei’s future was a critical feature of the 2005 peace deal that was signed between the Sudanese government and rebels that ended the civil war then and led the way to South Sudan’s independence.

However, unrest in the disputed area with South Sudan also continues at a time when Sudan is devastated by a more recent civil war that erupted in April 2023, when two generals started fighting over control of the country.

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been committing atrocities in Darfur and other regions, have also been active in Abyei.

Paramilitary force intensifies offensive in Kordofan region after seizing control of Darfur in October.

At least three people have been killed and nine others wounded, when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a drone attack on a central Sudanese city, as fighting intensifies across the vast strategic region of Kordofan that could determine the war’s outcome.

The strike hit a square near a police station in the Tayba neighbourhood of el-Obeid on Saturday afternoon, military sources told Al Jazeera. Several of the wounded are in critical condition, they said.

The attack underscores the RSF’s expanding use of air power as it shifts its offensive from Darfur to the sprawling Kordofan region, home to critical oil infrastructure that has generated revenue for both Sudan and neighbouring South Sudan.

Military sources reported that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) had earlier struck RSF positions in the town of Um Adara in South Kordofan, while RSF forces shelled the city of Um Rawaba in the north, causing civilian casualties.

An RSF drone also targeted army positions in Kosti city in White Nile state, in southeastern Sudan, destroying a military vehicle and injuring its crew, the sources added.

The three Kordofan states have witnessed fierce clashes in recent weeks, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes and compounding what aid agencies describe as one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies.

The United Nations’ World Food Programme warned it will be forced to slash food rations by up to 70 percent for communities facing starvation starting in January due to critical funding shortages.

Ross Smith, the agency’s emergency preparedness director, said the cuts would affect those already “on the brink of famine” as well as vulnerable communities at risk of sliding into hunger.

The WFP said 20 million Sudanese are suffering from malnutrition, with six million facing famine-like conditions. Smith warned that funding could “collapse” by April, threatening the programme’s ability to continue operations.

Sudan’s war between the army and RSF has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 13 million people since fighting erupted in April 2023, according to international organisations.

South Sudan’s military has moved into the Heglig oilfield under an unprecedented agreement between the country and neighbouring Sudan’s warring parties to safeguard critical energy infrastructure from the country’s civil war.

The deployment on Wednesday came after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the strategic site on December 8, compelling the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) units to retreat across the border into South Sudan, where they reportedly surrendered their weapons.

The agreement aims to neutralise the facility from combat operations as fighting intensifies across Sudan’s Kordofan region, threatening both countries’ primary revenue source.

Official Sudanese government sources revealed to Al Jazeera that high-level contacts have taken place between the Sudanese and South Sudanese leaderships since the beginning of this week, after the RSF mobilized to attack the “Heglig” area. Understandings were reached to secure the evacuation of workers in the field and avoid military confrontations to ensure that the oil field and its facilities are not subjected to sabotage and destruction, and tribal leaders also played a role in that.

The deployment of South Sudan forces was based on a previous oil and security cooperation agreement signed between Khartoum and Juba, which stipulates the protection of oil fields, pipelines and central pumping stations for South Sudan’s oil, in addition to the electricity interconnection project and strengthening cooperation in the energy sector.

The new factor is the involvement of the RSF.

South Sudan People’s Defence Forces Chief of Staff Paul Nang said at Heglig that troops entered under a “tripartite agreement” involving President Salva Kiir, SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, according to state broadcaster SSBC News.

The pact requires both Sudanese forces to withdraw from the area.

Nang stressed that South Sudanese forces would maintain strict neutrality.

“The primary goal is to completely neutralise the Heglig field from any combat operations”, he said, because it “represents an economic lifeline not only for South Sudan but for Sudan as well”.

The deployment followed a deadly drone attack on Tuesday evening that killed dozens, including three South Sudanese soldiers.

SAF confirmed using a drone to target RSF fighters at the facility, though the exact death toll remains unclear. Local media reported that seven tribal leaders and numerous RSF personnel died in the attack.

Approximately 3,900 Sudanese soldiers crossed into South Sudan’s Rubkona County after evacuating Heglig, handing over tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery to South Sudanese authorities, according to Unity State officials in South Sudan.

Thousands of civilians have also fled across the border since Sunday.

Heglig houses a central processing facility able to handle up to 130,000 barrels per day of South Sudanese crude destined for export through Sudanese pipelines. The site also includes Block 6, Sudan’s largest producing field.

Jan Pospisil, a South Sudan expert at Coventry University, explained the strategic calculus behind the unusual arrangement.

“From the SAF’s perspective, they don’t want the RSF to find another possible revenue stream, and it is better from their perspective for South Sudan to take control of the area,” he told Al Jazeera.

He added that the RSF “can’t really defend against air attacks by the SAF, as we saw with this drone strike, and they don’t need money right now”.

The seizure of Heglig marks the latest RSF advance as the conflict’s centre of gravity shifts from Darfur to the vast Kordofan region. The paramilitary force secured complete control of Darfur in October with the fall of el-Fasher, prompting international alarm over mass atrocities.

Activists at the Tawila camp told Al Jazeera that refugees continue arriving, with some forced to sleep outdoors due to insufficient resources.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk repeated a warning he issued last week that he was “extremely worried that we might see in Kordofan a repeat of the atrocities that have been committed in el-Fasher”, amid RSF advances in the region.

The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect echoed his warning, with Executive Director Savita Pawnday stressing that Sudan faces “one of the world’s gravest atrocity crises”, where civilians are enduring “unimaginable harm while the international community fails to respond”.

The fighting has triggered displacement, with the International Organization for Migration reporting more than 1,000 people fled South Kordofan province in just two days this week as combat intensified around the state capital, Kadugli.

In el-Fasher, the Sudan Doctors Network reported this week that the RSF is holding more than 19,000 detainees across Darfur prisons, including 73 medical personnel.

The medical advocacy group said cholera outbreaks are killing people due to overcrowding and the absence of adequate healthcare, with more than four deaths recorded weekly from medical neglect.

Dec. 10 (UPI) — The United States has blacklisted a network of four Colombians and four entities accused of recruiting former Colombian military personnel to fight in Sudan’s civil war.

The sanctions were announced Tuesday by the U.S. Treasury, which said the network was aiding the Rapid Support Forces, a breakaway paramilitary unit that has been accused of committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in the nearly 1,000-day-old conflict.

The RSF has been waging war against the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 2023. According to the Treasury, the RSF has recruited hundreds of former Colombian military personnel since September 2024.

The Colombian soldiers provide the RSF with tactical and technical expertise. They serve as infantry, artillerymen, drone pilots, vehicle operators and instructors, with some even training children, according to the Treasury.

“The RSF has shown again and again that it is willing to target civilians — including infants and young children. Its brutality has deepened the conflict and destabilized the region, creating the conditions for terrorist groups to grow,” John Hurley, undersecretary for the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement.

Colombian soldiers have aided the RSF in its late October capture of El Fasher in North Darfur following an 18-month assault, while committing alleged war crimes along the way, including mass killings, sexual violence and ethnically targeted torture.

The Treasury identified and sanctioned Alvaro Andrew Quijano Becerra, a 58-year-old retired Colombian military officer, who is accused by the United States of playing a leading role in the network from the United Arab Emirates. His Bogota-founded International Services Agency was also sanctioned for seeking to fill drone operator, sniper and translator roles for the RSF via its website, group chats and town halls.

Colombia-based employment agency Maine Global Corp., Colombia-based Comercializadora San Bendito and Panama-based Global Staffing S.A. were the other three entities sanctioned.

The other three individuals blacklisted were Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, Quijano’s 52-year-old wife; Mateo Andres Duque Botero, 50, the manager of Maine Global; and Monica Munoz Ucros, 49, Maine Global’s alternate manager and manager of Comercializadora San Bendito.

“Today’s sanctions disrupt an important source of external support to the RSF, degrading its ability to use skilled Colombian fighters to prosecute violence against civilians,” State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott said in a statement.

Sanctions freeze U.S.-based assets of those named while barring U.S. persons from doing business with them.