Sudan - February 2025

On 23 February, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied political and armed groups signed a charter in Nairobi aimed at establishing a parallel government in Sudan. Experts warned the formation of such a government would entrench the de facto partition of Sudan between the warring parties, with administrative control currently split between the Army-led government, the RSF and other armed groups. They suggested that this in turn could further destabilise the country and worsen the conflict, which has been characterised by large-scale ethnic and gender-based violence, attacks on civilians and critical civilian infrastructure, famine and allegations of atrocity crimes, including genocide. The charter’s signatories reportedly intend to form the government ‘within weeks.’

Update: On 3 March, the RSF and allied groups signed a ‘transitional constitution’ formally establishing the framework for a parallel government. The constitution outlines a secular, democratic and decentralized governance structure with a phased transitional period leading to elections, though no fixed timetable is provided. It reorganizes Sudan into federal, regional, and local levels, mandates military reforms, dissolves militias, and ensures equal citizenship, while granting regions self-determination rights if secularism and other conditions are not upheld.   

Sources: Sudan Founding Charter, Sudan Tribune, European Council on Foreign Relations, The Economist, Reuters (1), The Arab Weekly, Horn Review, Reuters (2)   

In February, Sudan’s Constitutional Document was amended by the country’s government, which is aligned with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and unilaterally changed the document in ways that entrench SAF power. The Constitutional Document had been signed in 2019, after the  popular revolution that removed president Omar al-Bashir, by the key actors involved in those events: the SAF, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) (with whom the SAF is now at war) and the civilian Forces of Freedom and Change coalition. It was intended to facilitate a transition to democracy. These constitutional amendments extend the transitional period by 39 months, eliminate all references to the RSF and SAF, increase army representation on the Sovereign Council (Sudan’s collective head of state) and expand the Sovereign Council’s powers, including over key appointments and policy decisions. The amendments also abolished a committee mandated to investigate a 2019 massacre carried out by the SAF. 

Sources: Sudan Tribune, The New Arab, Debanga Sudan