Volker Perthes, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan. Photo by: Sari Ahmed, Dabanga Radio.

UNITAMS was established in 2020 at the request of the transitional government to accompany Sudan on the path to a future where the chants of the Sudanese youth come true: freedom, peace, justice. Two years later, UNITAMS is working relentlessly to bring Sudan back to that path after the 25 October 2021 coup.

A year after the military takeover, Sudan remains in turmoil, with a declining economy, a deteriorating security situation and frequent flareups of violence at the community level, and consistent popular protests. The coup disrupted the debt relief process- one of the most notable achievements of the transitional government which would have erased Sudan’s international debt of 56 billion dollars. The Sudan Partnership Forum, launched in September 2021 with the support of UNITAMS to plan and coordinate the delivery of international development assistance, was frozen. The progress made on expanding peace in Sudan including during the second round of the Juba peace talks, convened in May 2021 with UNITAMS’s support, was lost. The implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement is slow and uneven due to the absence of a fully functional government and the lack of resources.

In my first briefing to the Security Council after assuming my responsibilities as the head of UNITAMS and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Sudan, I said that the pillars of UNITAMS’s mandate are interdependent. I say the same today. A steady and stable transition to democracy is essential for peacebuilding, protection of civilians, and for mobilizing the required resources to put Sudan on the track of sustainable development.

Following 25 October, UNITAMS dedicated its resources and expertise to supporting Sudanese stakeholders in reaching a solution to the political crisis that restores constitutional order and puts in place a credible and acceptable civilian-led government. This started with broad engagement with military and civilian leaders in the early days after 25 October, and later culminated into a full-fledged, inclusive consultative process in February of 2022. This process engaged over 800 interlocutors from political parties, the military, resistance committees, civil society organizations, women groups, armed movements, and stakeholders from different regions and states. The outcome of the consultations revealed some areas of disagreement that will require sustained dialogue through the transition and beyond. It also revealed broad areas of consensus including the need to prioritize forming an accepted transitional government that will assume responsibility for steering Sudan through the rest of the transition, and for addressing economic and other challenges.

From UNITAMS's consultative process convened in early 2022. Photo by: Mahmoud Shamrouk, UNITAMS.

UNITAMS joined efforts with the African Union and IGAD in March 2022 and created the Trilateral Mechanism to work collectively to facilitate a political agreement to end the political crisis. Since then, the Trilateral Mechanism has conducted dozens of meetings with Sudanese actors, studied scores of initiatives, and carried out shuttle diplomacy to bridge differences and to encourage the political stakeholders to engage in a Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue aimed at reaching a Sudanese-owned solution. The Mechanism also coordinated international support for this ongoing process and maintained open channels of communication between all involved to facilitate consensus.

When direct meetings designed to bring rivals together failed, we shuttled between them. When we were asked to provide technical assistance, we did. We worked with impartiality and our only bias was to the shared goal of ending the impasse and helping Sudan restore the path to democratic transition. And we upheld the highest possible level of transparency to counter frequent misinformation campaigns— an interest we had to balance with the confidentiality required to protect fragile negotiations.

The representatives of the AU, UNITAMS and IGAD at the press conference launching the Trilateral Mechanism, March 2022. Photo by Mahmoud Shamrouk, UNITAMS.

Protesters take to streets in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. 11 April 2019. Photo by Ayman Suliman, UN Sudan.

Sudan today is at a historic crossroads. In December of 2018, millions of Sudanese people took to the streets demanding freedom, peace and justice. By August 2019, Sudanese political actors and stakeholders signed a Constitutional Document that established a new civilian-led transitional Government and transitional institutions.

Subsequently, the United Nations responded positively to the request of the Sudanese transitional government and created the United Nations Integrated Transition Support Mission (UNITAMS) to accompany Sudan on its journey towards accountable, democratic, civilian-led governance, especially after the drawdown of the African Union- United Nations Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), and Sudan moving out of Chapter VII.

On 3 June 2020, the Security Council adopted resolution 2524 (2020), establishing UNITAMS, a special political mission under Chapter VI of the UN Charter, to provide support to Sudan for an initial 12-month period during its political transition to democratic rule. On 3 June 2021, the Security Council adopted resolution 2579 (2021) which welcomed the progress made by the Sudanese government in implementing the Constitutional Document, including important economic and legal reforms, and steps towards achieving peace including the signing of the Juba Peace Agreement in October of 2020 and the Declaration of Principles between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North Al Hilu. The Resolution extended the mandate of UNITAMS for 12 additional months, until 3 June 2022. On 3 June 2022, the Security Council renewed UNITAMS’s mandate for an additional year until 3 June 2023, according to resolution 2636 (2022).

Photo by: Albert Gonzalez Farran, UNAMID.

Girls attending school in East Darfur. 2022. Photo by: Peacebuilding Fund Secretariat in Sudan.

Since the coup of 2021, UNITAMS has been providing a platform to diverse groups of women to foster solidarity around common priorities and concerns across political divides with the hope of laying the foundation for a common agenda for all Sudanese women.

Supporting women’s meaningful participation in politics, decision making and peace processes is an integral part of the work of the United Nations as mandated by several Security Council resolutions, including resolution 2524 which established UNITAMS. In Sudan, unique challenges confront women in their quest to partake in deciding the future of their country. The coup of 25 October 2021, brought with it an intensification in political polarization, rapid economic deterioration and flare ups of violence in the regions with particularly harsh impacts on women including harassment, intimidation and other forms of Violence Against Women. Against this backdrop, women’s groups have been struggling to find channels to ensure women’s priorities are reflected in the national conversation and the many initiatives focused on finding ways to end the political impasse.

In response to the political crisis, UNITAMS convened a consultative process in early 2022 with over 800 Sudanese stakeholders who mapped a framework to guide any political solution with one key finding stressing that “Sudanese women and men must own the processes for determining the future of the transition and of their country.”

Most recently, UNITAMS facilitated a series of dialogues for women from different regions and backgrounds in Sudan together with UN Women and UNDP between July and August 2022. The dialogues brought together a total of 170 women from Khartoum, the East, the North, Kordofan, the Blue Nile and Darfur. They also included women from different political parties and with affiliation to the Juba Peace Agreement signatory armed movements. National and international experts helped facilitate the dialogues and discussed examples of women movements in Sudan and elsewhere.

Sudanese women groups present a joint constitutional vision to representatives of the international community. September 2022. Photo by: Mahmoud Shamrouk, UNITAMS.

The dialogues allowed women from across the political spectrum to think together of ways to foster solidarity between women’s groups around unified priorities. Themes of the discussion also included the incidence of violence in the regions and women’s leadership role in combating hate speech and supporting peaceful co-existence. Women participants also exchanged experiences about gender-based violence, including sexual violence, and ways to leverage women’s solidarity in support of survivors, as well as more strategic plans to curb violence against women and improve accountability in this regard.

“Our objective is to provide Sudanese women with the platform and the tools they need to bridge political differences and think collectively as women of ways where they can work together to ensure their ability to meaningfully participate in shaping the future of Sudan,” said Christina Shaheen, UNITAMS’s senior Gender Adviser, “This participation and the overall agenda of gender equality are integral parts of a credible transition towards sustainable democratic governance in Sudan.”

Sudanese women groups present a joint constitutional vision to representatives of the international community. September 2022. Photo by: Mahmoud Shamrouk, UNITAMS.

Every year on 21 September, the United Nations marks the International Day of Peace and calls for the observance of a 24-hour ceasefire everywhere in the world and advocates for a reaffirmation of the world’s commitment to peace. In 2022, the United Nations shed light on the relationship between racism and racial discrimination and conflict and declared a theme of “End Racism. Build Peace.”

The United Nations in Sudan marked the day with a group of Youth Peace Ambassadors from Darfur who engaged UN community leaders and Khartoum-based youth groups and participated in consultative roundtable discussions designed to solicit their views and proposals on various peacebuilding questions in Sudan.

The Youth Peace Ambassadors’ initiative is part of a project funded by the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund in Sudan and implemented by UNDP and UNHCR. The project targets West and Central Darfur and aims at empowering young women and men and enhancing their space of civic engagement and leadership within their communities and their local governance structures.

The Youth Ambassadors kicked off their visit by meeting the Khartoum-based youth groups SONAD and Adeela at the Carter Center, to learn from each other’s experiences on community-based peacebuilding and how to enhance their space of civic engagement and leadership within their communities. They also exchanged views on the challenges facing sustainable peace in Sudan.

Youth Peace Ambassadors meet UN leaders on International Peace Day. 2022. Photo by Mahmoud Shamrouk, UNITAMS.

The group also met United Nations leaders including the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Volker Perthes, and his Deputy, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Khardiata Lô N'Diaye, as well as leaders from UNHCR and UNDP. The UN also facilitated the group’s meeting with the National Peace Commissioner, Suliman El Dibello. In these meetings, the young advocates discussed a broad array of subjects including the impact of the continued political crisis on the escalation of violence across Sudan, the challenges facing the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement and the National Plan for the Protection of Civilians, and the restrictions they encounter at their communities in the course of their peace advocacy work. They emphasized the importance of achieving equal citizenship in a Sudan that fits all.

“Peace is the inclusion of all people regardless of their ethnicity,” Radwan Ismail, one of the peace advocates from El Genina said in one of the meetings.

Youth Peace Ambassadors meet UN leaders on International Peace Day. 2022. Photo by Mahmoud Shamrouk, UNITAMS.