A displaced Sudanese student looks out from a tent at an elementary school run by the Sudanese Coalition for Education in partnership with the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), south of Port Sudan, on April 26, 2026.
Dr. Francis Deng and Dr. Issameldin Abbas
Since the outbreak of war in April 2023, the Sudan crisis has witnessed an unprecedented proliferation and overlap of regional and international initiatives aimed at halting the fighting and launching a comprehensive political process.
Despite the intensity of these efforts and the diversity of actors involved – from the Jeddah and Manama platforms to the International Quad and the Quintet and the efforts of the French Promediation Organisation – this multiplicity has failed to translate into any meaningful breakthrough in the peace process.
On the contrary, it has contributed to increasing the complexity of the landscape by fostering an environment of competition and institutional fragmentation, thereby undermining the prospects for a unified international position.
