Sudan Civil Wars
Understanding Sudan’s Genocidal Civil Wars is a three-part series by Robert Cox – an analyst with firsthand experience of North Africa – examining how decades of militia politics and deliberate state fragmentation produced ongoing crises in Darfur and Khartoum. The series makes the case that Sudan’s recurring violence is structural, not accidental.
Robert Cox
Robert Hill Cox graduated from Harvard College with an honors degree in history and literature. He then worked and lived in Egypt, under the auspices of the Cairo Fulbright Commission, where he taught English at El Minia University. He has traveled extensively through Europe, Africa and Asia.
As recently as the early 1980s, Sudan seemed to have everything going for it for a Third World country. Its assets included a favorable location for international trade, regional allies, a well-educated elite, and the promise of oil revenue. What went wrong? This three part series: "Broken from the Beginning: Understanding Sudan's Genocidal Civil Wars" dissects the root causes of Sudan's present catastrophes.
Sudan showed signs of fissure from the start. Those in the South were afraid of being handed over to people who for years had done little but try to enslave them. As if to confirm their suspicions, only 8 out of 800 government positions during the 1956 independence negotiations were reserved for southerners. If our goal is understanding Sudan's genocidal civil wars, then the profound disconnect between an Arab, Muslim North and a Christian/Animist and African South can't be overemphasized.
Sudan's leaders beefed up the rag-tag Janjaweed militia, transforming what had been a group of semi-organized raiders into the RSF - a fully equipped adjunct to the Sudanese military. But after decades of expanding its operational capabilities, the RSF decided it wanted to be more than the tail that wags the dog. In 2023, it launched an all-out bid for power. We explain what happened, and why, in "The RSF Comes for Khartoum".
During my three-month sojourn in Sudan, I grew to like sleepy, dusty Khartoum. In the 1980s, Khartoum had a reputation as one of the safest - or possibly the safest - city in Africa. Its residents were universally viewed as courteous and hospitable. But Sudan's darker history was always hoving in the background, and just below the surface, like a crocodile in river water.