NEWS: “U.S. Positioning Troops for Evacuation of American Embassy in Sudan.” / “Sudan’s Warring Generals Agree to Weeklong Truce, Says South Sudan.” News adds: “The battle has sent 100,000 refugees fleeing across borders. Now, neighboring South Sudan says both sides have agreed to name representatives to peace talks, but neither side has publicly confirmed.”
THE Sudanese conflict is an old flaming tempest that hasn’t really subsided. Long before the Second Sudanese Civil War from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army, conflicts punctuated life in this impoverished Northeast African nation of 49 million. Violation of the agreement forged in Addis Ababa Accords and incorporated in the Constitution of Sudan in 1972 led to the second civil war. A number of mutinies took place in 1974, 1975, and 1976 that claimed thousands of lives.
The First Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1955 to 1972 between the northern part of Sudan and the southern Sudan region. Decades of struggle by the mainly Christian and Animist south against rule by the Arab Muslim north cut a long swath of cold darkness in the country. Until Sudan split into two in 2011, Sudan and South Sudan. Yet bloody hostilities didn’t stop.
At the core of the conflict lies a power struggle between Sudan's political center in Khartoum and its southern and western peripheries. From 2003, genocide or systematic killing of ethnic Darfuri people has occurred in Western Sudan.
You may google the rest. 🇸🇩☮️🇸🇩
FOR years, Darfur has been a perennial theme in many speeches of U.S. presidents, notably Barack Obama in the duration of his terms from 2009 to 2017. Yet nothing has been done compared with Washington forwarded in other countries or regions. Since 2005 the U.S. government has contributed upwards of $8 billion in humanitarian aid as food aid, health care provisions, water, sanitation, and hygiene. They have also given money towards nutrition, agriculture, protection, and economic recovery programs. We are talking about almost two decades of “help.”
Before the 2000s, however, foreign aid givers handed Sudan close to $270 million between 1977–1981 and were Sudan's largest source of foreign aid by 1984. In current money, that’d be around $810 million? Based on OECD data, the U.S. has provided one-third of total aid to Sudan between 2000 and 2009, making it the largest donor for most of these years. The European Union institutions, provided 13.4 percent of aid during the same period.
USAID's budget for Sudan in 1984: $25 million in development assistance and $50 million to finance the sale of agricultural products. I don’t know which were “aid” and which were “loans.” When Sudan failed to repay loans in 1985, the U.S. ceased all non-food aid.
However, the U.S. didn’t stop giving help. For example, "Operation Lifeline Sudan" of 1989 delivered 100,000 metric tons of food into both government and in areas held by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), averting widespread starvation. In 1991, the U.S. made large donations to alleviate food shortages caused by a two-year drought.
Those were years ago before 21st century strode in and situations worsened. 🇸🇩☮️🇸🇩
FOR fiscal years 2005–2006, the U.S. committed almost $2.6 billion to Sudan for humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping in Darfur. Fast forward to 2022: Washington has provided a “mere” $371 million in humanitarian assistance to Sudan. Yet Washington has tossed $75 billion to Ukraine in just 1 year. Actually, the U.S. Congress approved $113 billion of Ukraine aid late last year.
The European Union is no different. E.U. or Europe per se has sent €19.7 billion to support Ukraine. This year to Sudan? €73 million. Between 2000 to 2009, Arab country governments, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, made two large contributions to Sudan: $146.4 million in 2000 and $81.8 million in 2008.
What about China? Sudan has acquired the largest share of aid allocated to Africa at the China-Africa Cooperation summit in 2018, where $60 billion was pledged "to achieve development in the African countries.”
During the forum, China wrote off Khartoum's debts accrued up to 2015, totalling $10 billion. In addition, Chinese oil companies pledged to invest in the gas, minerals and oil pipelines from South Sudan to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast. 🇸🇩☮️🇸🇩
MEANWHILE, on President Biden’s order, U.S. forces evacuated just under 100 American staff of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum on the 3rd week of April. New York Times: “How U.S. Efforts to Guide Sudan to Democracy Ended in War.” And adds: “Critics say the Biden administration and its partners were naïve about the intentions of two rival generals and failed to empower civilian leaders.”
Let’s backtrack a bit. In early 2021, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin signed a memorandum of understanding with Sudanese Acting Finance Minister Heba Mohamed Ali, in order to clear Sudan's arrears with the World Bank, and to allow their access to more than $1 billion in annual lending.
The quid pro quo: In March on the same year, Sudanese officials welcomed the missile guided destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill at Port Sudan, the first time in decades that the U.S. naval forces had visited the country.
Sudan’s naval forces chief, Alnairi Hassan, praised the move. Then boom. In October, the Sudanese military, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan overthrew the government and detained Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. Washington condemned the coup, called for Hamdok's release and suspended $700 million in aid to Sudan. Hamdok was reinstated as Prime Minister on November 21; the move was welcomed by the United States.
This is where we are now. Still want to talk about Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine? End the war with Russia. Pressure Z to submit an accounting of aid tossed at him. Then let’s go fix Sudan. Of course, China is always watching or awaiting a U.S. move. 🇸🇩☮️🇸🇩
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