Saferworld work to prevent violent conflict and build safer lives.We believe there are essential conditions necessary for peace to become established. We work to create environments where people play an active role in preventing and transforming conflict and building peace people have access to fair and effective paths to address the grievances and inequalities that drive conflict people with influence exercise power to promote just and equitable societies.

Since before its independence, Sudan has been afflicted by persistent and recurring violent conflict, primarily driven by struggles between the central government in Khartoum and armed groups from the country’s peripheries. Numerous internationally supported peace agreements – including the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Darfur Peace Agreement(s) and the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement – have failed to bring lasting peace. Peace processes to date have all failed to address the underlying causes of conflict and the governance system which perpetuates them. They have all been piecemeal power sharing pacts among the elites of the belligerent actors, excluding unarmed political groups, civil society actors and the wider public. The peace processes have all therefore lacked legitimacy and popular support and have failed to address the drivers of conflict at both the national and, crucially, the local level.

Today Sudan continues to face a complex and severe crisis. Despite the peaceful referendum on the secession of South Sudan, violence re-erupted in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states in Sudan in 2011. The violence has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians and caused a serious humanitarian crisis. Conflict in Darfur, fuelled by government sponsored militia overlaid with complex intertribal dynamics, has continued unabated for more than a decade.

Despite continuing talks under the auspices of the African Union, there has been no real progress towards ending the continuing violence within Sudan. A new approach, learning from the lessons of the past, is needed to help Sudan move towards an inclusive and lasting peace, both within Sudan and with its neighbours.