Understanding Sudan's Internal Conflicts

Africa Without Borders organized an academic conference dedicated to the in-depth analysis of the internal Sudanese conflict, triggered on April 15, 2023, with the aim of better understanding the political, military, social and humanitarian dynamics that underlie this major crisis. This conference aimed to provide a rigorous analytical framework to shed light on the structural causes of the conflict, its immediate consequences and its medium and long-term implications for Sudan and the region. The conference was moderated by Dr Younis Ahmed Adam Yahya, teacher at the University of Health Sciences and director of Sudan Nyala SHMUO, whose double posture of Sudanese researcher and citizen offered a rigorous, nuanced analysis closely linked to the country's internal dynamics. In his speech, Dr. Yahya highlighted that the armed clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) quickly degenerated into open war, plunging the country into a complex, deep and multidimensional humanitarian crisis. The speaker stressed that this war constitutes a particularly destructive process for social and institutional structures, disproportionately affecting civilian populations. Widespread violence, bombings and chronic insecurity have led to a virtual paralysis of daily life, compromising access to essential services and accentuating the vulnerability of local communities. Dr Yahya also emphasized the geographical scale of the conflict, specifying that the regions of Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan are among the hardest hit areas. The persistence of fighting has caused the forced displacement of millions of people, both within the country and across borders, the disintegration of health and education systems, as well as an alarming deterioration in food secu