Evaluating the EU’s role and challenges in Sudan and South Sudan: Sudan and South Sudan case study

Evaluating the EU's role and challenges in Sudan and South Sudan: Sudan and South Sudan case study

This report analyses the EU’s institutional capacity to carry out conflict early warning, early action and conflict prevention in two of the most conflict-ridden and war-affected countries in the world: Sudan and South Sudan.

It looks at the institutional aspects of EU conflict early-warning approaches and assesses the extent to which they are applied in-country and in Brussels to inform policies, strategies and programming processes. The objective of this work is to identify recommendations to overcome challenges and constraints so that the EU, under the new Lisbon Treaty architecture, can better link early warning to effective and timely response to prevent conflict and build peace.

Conflict early warning and conflict prevention and mitigation are not approached from a technical perspective; instead, they are analysed as part of the wider EU approach to peacebuilding and conflict-sensitive development in Sudan. The emphasis of this report is on conflict in and between Sudan and South Sudan as well as in the Three Areas (Abyei, South Kordofan, Blue Nile); the violent conflict in Darfur is not covered in detail.

It should be noted that this report was prepared in a period when the EU was going through a number of significant internal changes with the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and the creation of the European External Action Service, while at the same time Sudan itself was also undergoing a crucial transformation into two nation states.