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Sudan

https://www.idea.int/democracytracker/

August 2024

Famine officially declared in Darfur IDP camp

On 1 August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global standard for food security, announced that its Famine Review Committee (FRC) had confirmed an ongoing famine in Zamzam camp, an internally displaced persons camp in Darfur. According to the FRC, famine conditions in Zamzam are highly likely to persist beyond October and that other areas of Sudan remain at risk of famine due to the ongoing conflict and limited humanitarian access. Zamzam is thought to be sheltering half a million people and is located on the outskirts of the North Darfurian city of El Fasher, that has for months been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary force fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces. For a famine to be declared by the IPC, it has to determine that a sufficiently high proportion of a population in a specific area is suffering from extreme food scarcity. It is only the third time that it has made such a determination since its establishment in 2004.     

Sources:  Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (1), Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (2), Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (3)Famine Early Warning Systems Network

June 2024

UN experts say warring parties using starvation as weapon of war

In a joint statement published on 26 June, six UN Special Rapporteurs said that both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are using starvation as a weapon of war. The use of starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime under international law. According to the experts, the parties, who have been fighting each other since April 2023, are ‘blocking, looting and exploiting humanitarian assistance.’ They referred in particular to the RSF’s ongoing siege of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, where hundreds of thousands of civilians remain trapped and are ‘suffering from severe hunger and thirst’. The experts also criticised the arrest, threatening and prosecution of activists and volunteers, whose community mutual aid initiatives, they said, are ‘currently leading food delivery efforts’. A June report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification found that Sudan is facing its worst recorded levels of food insecurity and the UN experts warned that ‘widespread famine [is] imminent’.   

Sources: United Nations, International Committee of the Red Cross, Just Security, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification

May 2024

Intensified fighting in North Dafur’s capital prompts genocide warnings
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An intensification of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, has prompted a UN expert to warn of genocide. El-Fasher, the last major urban area in Darfur controlled by the SAF, has been besieged by the RSF since April 2024. However, by May the security situation had significantly deteriorated, leaving the more-than one million people thought to be trapped in the city at risk of dying from a lack of food and medicine, being caught in the crossfire or becoming the targets of ethnic violence. Experts have warned that the fighting threatens to aggravate intercommunal conflict, predicting that the increasingly polarised environment could lead to large-scale ethnic killings. Among them was the UN’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, who in a UN Security Council briefing on 21 May stated that the risk of genocide in Sudan was ‘growing, every single day’.       

Sources: The New Humanitarian, Middle East Eye (1), Middle East Eye (2), Sudan Tribune, United Nations (1), United Nations (2), British Broadcasting Corporation

April 2024

Sudan suspends UAE- and Saudi-owned TV channels

On 2 April, Sudan’s Ministry of Culture and Information suspended the operations of three TV channels in the country, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Al Arabiya and Al Hadath and the UAE-owned Sky News Arabia. The Ministry justified its decision on the grounds that the outlets had failed to renew their licences and that they had shown ‘a lack of commitment to the required professionalism and transparency.’ The suspensions were heavily criticised by the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate, a trade union, which described them as a ‘clear violation of freedom of expression and freedom of the media’ and asserted that they were part of a broader pattern of journalist intimidation in Sudan, which is in the midst of a civil war.

Sources: Reuters, Sudan Tribune, Sudanese Journalists Syndicate, Committee to Protect Journalists, Radio Dabanga         

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Global ranking per category of democratic performance in 2023

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Representation
154/173
Rights
161/173
Rule of Law
160/173
Participation
139/173
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Basic Information

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Population Tooltip
46 874 204
System of government
Presidential system
Head of government
Prime Minister Osman Hussein (acting, since 2022)
Head of government party
Not applicable
Electoral system for lower or single chamber
Parallel
Women in lower or single chamber
Not applicable
Women in upper chamber
Not applicable
Last legislative election
2015
Head of state
Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan
Selection process for head of state
Direct election (two-round majority)
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) date
01/02/2022
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) percentage of recommendations supported
86.22%
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Human Rights Treaties

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State Party State party
Signatory Signatory
No Action No action
United Nations Human Right Treaties
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
State Party
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
State Party
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
State Party
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
No Action
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment
State Party
Convention on the Rights of the Child
State Party
International Convention on Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
No Action
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance 
State Party
International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
State Party
International Labour Organisation Treaties
Forced Labour Convention
State Party
Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention
State Party
Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention
State Party
Equal Remuneration Convention
State Party
Abolition of Forced Labour Convention
State Party
Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention
State Party
Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment
State Party
Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
State Party
Regional Treaties
African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
State Party
Arab Charter on Human Rights
State Party
in
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Performance by category over the last 6 months

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Representation neutral Rule of law
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Representation neutral Participation
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Global State of Democracy Indices

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Representation
Representation
0
/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Rights
Rights
0
/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Rule of Law
Rule of Law
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/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Participation
Participation
0
/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4

Factors of Democratic Performance Over Time

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