Sudan Protection Analysis Update

More than a year on since the 25 October 2021 coup d’état, the protection environment in Sudan remains in flux. In the last several months, Sudan has experienced factional fighting, criminality, inter-communal violence, intertribal conflict, large-scale displacement, human rights violations, hyperinflation, and flooding. While the Sudanese Bar Association develops a new Sudanese Constitution, alliances among elites in Khartoum and the peripheries are being cemented and combined with inadequate security provision, the result is attacks on civilians, conflict, inter-communal violence and new internal displacement. Meanwhile, solutions for those in protracted displacement remain elusive. The latest figures indicate that Sudan hosts 3.7 Million IDPs and there are an additional 1,000,000 IDP returnees.

Simultaneously, mediations to restore civilian rule and the political transition that started in 2019 have only recently made any headway. On 05 December 2022, the military and political parties signed a Political Framework Agreement allowing a civilian-led transition towards elections. Opposition to the framework has come from pro-democratic resistance committees, Islamist coalitions and armed groups such as the Sudanese Liberation Army-Abdul Wahid.

This Protection Analysis Update analyses priority protection risks within this context since June 2022 and provides recommendations. The protection risks observed, by the Protection Sector, stem from the Government of Sudan’s failure to provide protection to civilians and enable its citizens in the conflict affected areas to enjoy national protection.

Priority protection risks identified include:

1. Attacks on Civilians and other unlawful killings
2. Attacks on civilian infrastructure
3. Gender-based Violence
4. Theft, extorsion, eviction or destruction of personal property.