The threat of interstate war seems contained. Yet intrastate violence increases, and spreads across borders.
Ever since heavy fighting broke out in the capital Juba on December 15, horror stories from South Sudan have been daily news. Somewhat overshadowed by this tragedy, the situation in the Sudanese regions of Darfur and the Nuba Mountains has also further deteriorated. Against this background, the German Foreign Ministry’s Special Envoy for Promoting Dialogue among Civilizations, Dr. Heinrich Kreft, opened the symposium at the DGAP. First, he outlined the support of the Federal Government for peaceful transformation in general, to elaborate then on the Government’s measures for conflict resolution in the two Sudans in particular.
In the first panel, James Copnall, BBC correspondent for Sudan and South(ern) Sudan from 2009 to 2012, introduced his new book, “A Poisonous Thorn in Our Hearts: Sudan and South Sudan’s Bitter and Incomplete Divorce,” which he had previously presented at Chatham House, the Royal African Society, and the Frontline Club in London. He focused on the open issues of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which promoted the model „one country, two systems,” but which ultimately led to the separation of Africa’s largest country through a referendum on South Sudan’s independence. Because of these unresolved problems, the two countries have at times been in a de facto state of war with each other.
Dr. Magdi Elgizouli, Fellow at the Rift Valley Institute and at the German Academic Exchange Service, emphasized that Copnall’s account was not limited to the usual elite perspectives. Rather, it included the views of ordinary people, thereby highlighting the cultural bonds between the two Sudans. The Sudanese researcher further stressed the dominant role of the armed forces in either state. He urged that the militarization of the political economy required more analysis in the general discourse. Copnall and Elgizouli agreed that the war in South Sudan has resulted in a significant improvement of relations between Khartoum and Juba, but warned that the bilateral tensions have kept their explosive potential. Dina Fakoussa, head of the DGAP’s EU-Middle East Forum, chaired the session.
Dr. Ulrike von Pilar, Senior Advisor at the German section of Doctors without Borders, opened the second panel. She pointed out that a humanitarian disaster was already taking place, since extreme brutality has forced more than one million South Sudanese to flee their homes. Von Pilar criticized the insufficient emergency assistance by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) as well as its mandate more generally for mixing humanitarian operations with political aims, thus endangering the neutrality of independent organizations. In this context, she urged the German government – being a major contributor to the UN – to lobby for a clear-cut division instead of an integrated mission.
Johannes Lehne, Head of the Sudan and South Sudan unit in the Foreign Ministry, emphasized on his part that the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) had jointly allocated 45.6 million euro for emergency aid measures in South Sudan. While only a small number of soldiers from the German Armed Forces serve with UNMISS and the African Union / United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), they do so in key positions. Furthermore, the German government actively and critically supports the mediation efforts of both the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) as the Eastern African regional body for South Sudan and the “National Dialogue” political reform process between the government and opposition in Sudan. Panel chair Prof. Dr. Stefan Brüne of the Greater Horn Horizon Forum (Hamburg-Djibouti) and former advisor to IGAD underlined – with regard to Uganda’s military intervention in support of the South Sudanese government – that no IGAD member country should be excluded from the peace negotiation process.
Contributions from the Ambassador of the Republic of South Sudan, H.E. Sitona Abdalla Osman, from the Sudanese Chargé d’Affaires Khalid Musa, and from representatives of other embassies, NGOs, academia and media added to a remarkably open discussion. The symposium was a collaboration of the Berlin-based NGO Media in Cooperation and Transition (MICT) and the EU-Middle East Forum (EUMEF) of the DGAP, with support from the Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies at the DGAP. It brought together some 100 experts to discuss an urgent issue, which, owing to the crisis in Ukraine, Western media have largely overlooked. The debate highlighted the participants’ great commitment, despite setbacks. Thus, the event stimulated further discourse on the two Sudans, specifically in terms of intensifying the dialogue between the German Parliament and NGOs on how Germany could assist creatively in resolving the conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan.
